BJP using legal cover to silence inconvenient voices, says Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress on Thursday said that the Surat court’s conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case was bad in law and the Congress leader would appeal against it in the higher court, and expressed hope that the judgment would be stayed and later quashed.

Accusing BJP of using legal cover to silence inconvenient voices, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that Rahul was given the maximum sentence of 2 years in a case in which the accused usually gets away with a warning. It was part of a plot to disqualify Rahul from Parliament, he claimed.

Congress said it did not expect fair treatment from the Modi government or the Lok Sabha Speaker if it came to Rahul’s disqualification from Lok Sabha.



AICC legal eagle Abhishek Singhvi said, “Any reasonable and non-oppressive system will give sufficient time to a person to seek stay of the conviction. But we are not confident the government will act on these principles.”

Rahul returned from Surat in the evening and was given a rousing reception by Congress workers and MPs at IGI airport.



Singhvi said there was nothing unusual in the present case, noting that Lakshdweep MP Mohammad Faizal’s conviction in a more serious case involving a murder charge had been stayed on appeal recently.


Singhvi said a large chunk of the last 2-3 years was taken up by the complainant “in going to a higher court and getting a stay on the entire proceedings, which was rather unusual for a complainant who should be interested in faster settlement.”

“The complainant after a long period of time, suddenly withdrew the complaint, apparently after the magistrate before whom the matter had initially come ceased to hold office and a different magistrate had taken over. It is that second person who appears to have passed this order of conviction,” he said.