'No change in Rahul Gandhi's conduct...' Surat court's 168-page verdict
'If the accused is mildly punished, then it sends a wrong message to the public, and the purpose of defamation will not be served,' the judge said in the order.
FollowCongress MP Rahul Gandhi used Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surname to satisfy his political greed and defamed 13 crore people having 'Modi' as surname, said Judge Hadirash Varma in his 168-page verdict in the defamation case verdict.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate's verdict in Gujarati, parts of which, when translated, read that the judge took note of the fact that despite contending that he did not intend to humiliate people with the surname 'Modi', there is no record of any change in the conduct of the accused.
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'The accused is an MP himself, and the matter of his addressing the people as an MP is very serious,' the judge said in the order, adding that 'When addressing the public, it (the remark) has a very wide impact on the people. Because of this, the seriousness of the crime increases. If the accused is mildly punished, then it sends a wrong message to the public, and the purpose of defamation will not be served.'
The court in Gujarat sentenced Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail in the case, filed on a complaint by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi for his alleged remark, "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?"
The court, which held the 52-year-old guilty under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500, also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court.
Rahul can escape immediate disqualification as a member of parliament if the appellate court suspends the conviction as well as the two-year jail term.
Rallying in support of the former party president, the Grand Old Party had termed the sentencing as "erroneous and unsustainable" and said that the verdict would be challenged in a higher court. "We believe that this is full of errors and legally unsustainable in conclusion. But make no mistake generally...all your (government's) efforts to create a chilling effect, a throttling effect, strangulating effect on open, fearless speech relating to the public interest will not stop either Rahul Gandhi or the Congress party," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told media persons.
The BJP, however, asserted that the law has to take its course if Rahul Gandhi abuses people and slammed the Congress over its criticism of his conviction in a defamation case, asking whether the opposition party wants "complete freedom" for him to "abuse" others.
BJP leader and former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad cautioned Gandhi, saying he will find himself facing "more troubles" if he doesn't refrain from making defamatory remarks, while Union Minister Piyush Goyal asked the Congress leader to apologise for his series of "defamatory" comments.
Also Read: 'Lies part of Rahul Gandhi's politics, people will punish him': JP Nadda
