Rahul Gandhi to move high court after sessions court junked plea against defamation conviction

Congress's Singhvi claimed that Rahul’s remarks were taken out of context and a case has been made out

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will appeal against the Surat Sessions Court rejecting his plea for suspending his conviction in the defamation case in Gujarat High Court in “very near future” with party’s legal eagle Abhishek Singhvi on Thursday calling the order “most unfortunate, most unsustainable and erroneous”.

The Rajya Sabha MP also referred to the court noting in its judgement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 13 crore others have been defamed by Rahul’s speech, claiming that it showed that the judge is “overshadowed by the exalted office” of the Prime Minister.

“Clearly, unfortunately, influenced by the high office of the Prime Minister forgetting that the Prime Minister is not the complainant,” he told a press conference along with Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh.

Singhvi, who will appear for Rahul in Gujarat High Court when the appeal comes up, said the court has “wrongly” cited various judgements in its order with some not having any link to the case and some others actually favouring Rahul.

The senior lawyer said Rahul will appeal “very soon” though he would not prefer to give a timeline. He said he was sure the higher judiciary will “set right the legal errors” in both the district and session courts.

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Calling the judgement “fallacious” and against the principles of law, he said, “a most unfortunate and unsustainable legal decision of the magistrate has been upheld in an even more unsustainable and erroneous judgement of the Sessions Court.”

He said such decisions will not silence Rahul and if someone thinks so, “they neither know Rahul nor the Congress”.

“The voice of Rahul Gandhi is not to be silenced in the manner in which the BJP thinks it can do. The BJP has been in a sense from Modi downwards to the government and the ruling party captured in a fear psychosis,” he said.

He said both the district and sessions courts did not provide any reasoning for the courts in Surat taking up the case for a speech Rahul made in Karnataka’s Kolar.

Singhvi claimed that Rahul’s remarks were taken out of context and a case has been made out. However, he expressed confidence that the higher courts would correct the wrong.

He also said the BJP campaign against Rahul on OBC plank is now hitting them back as the OBCs now know that the Prime Minister and the BJP are misusing their names.