Rahul Gandhi’s conviction: Unsustainable judgment, will challenge in higher court, says Congress

Soon after the court order, Rahul tweeted in Hindi, quoting Mahatma Gandhi: “My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God and non-violence the means to achieve it.” While he was in Surat for the court proceedings, he returned to Delhi later in the day and was received by party leaders at the airport.

Addressing a press conference, Singhvi said even the “first condition precedent” of the defamation law appeared to have been flouted. “There are some disturbing aspects of this judgment which of course will be subject to challenge immediately, but firstly, the heart of the law of criminal defamation is that persons who are complainants should be those who must be able to demonstrate how they personally have been defamed, or prejudiced. Now, the admitted position is that no one who is the subject matter of the statement which is found to be offending has filed a criminal complaint,” he said.

Singhvi’s contention was that Rahul’s alleged remarks, made at a poll rally in Kolar (Karnataka) on April 13, 2019, did not have “malicious intent” and was not directed specifically at a particular group. “Why all the thieves have Modi in their names whether it is Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi,” Rahul was reported to have said.

“The very context of this speech shows that there could not have been any malicious intent. A leader of a political party of India with a pan-India footprint was speaking about unemployment, price rise, in the course of which there is a sentence which has been found to be offending. The focus of the speech was not these three persons,” Singhvi told a press conference.

Singhvi indicated that the complainant’s “sudden” withdrawal of attempts to move a higher court will also be part of the Congress’s appeal. The case against Rahul was filed by BJP’s Surat MLA, Purnesh Modi.

Singhvi said the complainant stopped his attempts to approach a higher court after a new magistrate took office. “It is that second person (magistrate) who appears to have passed the order of conviction,” he said.

Asked if the Congress had no faith in the court, Singhvi said: “We have faith in the judiciary which has in-built corrective systems. We have the right to say this judgment is wrong and it will be corrected.” The judgment was pronounced by Chief Judicial Magistrate H H Verma.

The Congress said the court appeared not to have considered Section 202 of the CrPC. According to Section 202 of the CrPC, any magistrate, on receipt of a complaint of an offence of which he is authorised to take cognizance, “may, if he thinks fit, and shall, in a case where the accused is residing at a place beyond the area in which he exercises his jurisdiction, postpone the issue of process against the accused”.

The provision “appears not to have been dealt with satisfactorily and that would be another major issue in the appeal, which is immediately going to be filed. Also, the maximum sentence appears to have been imposed after a very short argument on sentencing. As you know, sentencing is a different, separate, distinct procedure, which requires proper hearing and arguments apart from, and irrespective of, conviction,” said Singhvi.

The Congress said it does not expect either the government or the Lok Sabha Speaker to allow “reasonable time” to challenge the judgment before proceeding with Rahul’s disqualification from the House.

“Any reasonable, fair, non-oppressive, non-biased system would give sufficient time to a person to take some legal steps to stay the conviction. But equally, having said that, I doubt if this government will act on any of those four adjectives since Rahul Gandhi’s name is involved in this,” said Singhvi.

Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted in Hindi: “Coward, dictatorial BJP government is incensed at Rahul Gandhi and Opposition because we are exposing their misdeeds and demanding a JPC… Under its political bankruptcy, the Modi government sends police, ED and imposes cases on political speeches. We will appeal in the higher court.”

“We knew such a thing could happen… they kept changing judges. But we have faith in the judiciary and will fight as per the law,” he said.

“A scared machinery of power is trying to suppress the voice of Rahul Gandhi through ‘saam, daam, dand, bhed’ (every trick in the book)… My brother has never been afraid, nor will he ever be. He has lived his life speaking the truth, will continue to speak the truth, will continue to raise the voice of the people of the country,” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted in Hindi.

(With PTI inputs)