Rahul gets bail in defamation case, next hearing on April 13
Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 Apr, 2023 11:17 AM
Surat, April 3 (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was sentenced to two years in prison in a criminal defamation case, was granted bail extension by a sessions court in Gujarat's Surat on Monday. The court will hear his appeal against conviction in the case on April 13.
Earlier, the former president of Congress, arrived in Surat to file the appeal in sessions court against a lower court's order that found him guilty of criminal defamation. The charges stemmed from a remark he made in April 2019 while campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka's Kolar.
The court accepted Gandhi's petition and scheduled it for a hearing on April 13. However, he also faces another deadline to vacate his official residence in New Delhi, which was allotted to him as an MP, by April 22.
During his campaign, Gandhi stated that "all thieves have Modi surname", equating Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fugitives like Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi. On March 23, a lower court in Surat found him guilty of defaming the entire Modi community in a case filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi. The former Congress president was subsequently disqualified from the Lok Sabha under a rule that bars convicted MPs from holding Lok Sabha membership.
Gandhi was given the maximum 2-year jail term for his offence, but the sentence was suspended for 30 days for him to file an appeal against the order. If the conviction is not overturned, he will be disqualified from contesting elections for the next eight years.
Announcing this on the floor of Assembly, he said the farmers will get the additional amount under State Agreed Price (SAP) of sugarcane as compared to the last year. With this decision, the state government will spend additional Rs 200 crore annually to benefit the farmers.
Accordingly, the police registered a case under sections 302 (murder), 307 (atttempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) at the Adarsh Nagar police station and during investigation, it was revealed that deceased had a quarrel with the five accused classmates in their school, due to which they murdered him to take revenge, while they were going home.
Moving a resolution to this regard, Mann said that the main function of the Punjab State Vigilance Commission is to enquire or cause enquires into complaints alleging commission of offences by a public servant under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.
In spite of the pressure and demand to step down, the accused seer has categorically refused to quit, according to sources. The meeting was held in the leadership of former minister H Ekantaiah in this regard and discussed future course of action.
According to information, the deceased used to beat the juveniles and would often snatch their money to buy alcohol and drugs. The juveniles had been planning to take revenge for this. A senior police official said that the deceased was identified as Ajay, a resident of Labor Colony in Outer Delhi. The official said that the juveniles stabbed him repeatedly and fled from the crime scene.
The murder of Brar, who was a close relative of Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, has triggered an inter-gang rivalry between the Davinder Bambiha gang and the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, leading to a spate of murders in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and the National Capital Region (NCR) Delhi. Brar was shot dead outside a nightclub in Chandigarh in October 2020.
