Last Update: March 07, 2023, 21:15 IST
The trial in the four-year-old case resumed after the Gujarat High Court recently lifted the interim stay on the proceedings imposed in March last year. (File photo/Twitter)
The court is hearing final arguments in the criminal defamation case filed against the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Wayanad
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer told a Gujarat court here on Tuesday that the criminal defamation complaint over his alleged “Modi surname” remark should have been filed by the Prime Minister. Narendra Modi As an aggrieved person, because most of the allegations made in the Leader of the Opposition’s 2019 election speech, which is at the center of the matter, were directed at the latter.
Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Purnesh Modi’s alleged remarks made at a rally in Kolar, Karnataka earlier in 2019 – “How can all thieves be surnamed Modi?” A criminal defamation suit was filed against Gandhi regarding the Lok Sabha elections.
Gandhi’s lawyer Kirit Panwala told the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Verma in Surat that ruling party MLAs are not aggrieved parties in the case and the surname remark does not defame a social group as there is no such thing as “Modi” community . ,
The court is hearing final arguments in the criminal defamation case filed against the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Wayanad.
”Since 90 per cent of the allegations in the alleged election speech Rahul Gandhi was directed against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was he who as an aggrieved person should have filed the complaint regarding defamation and not Purnesh Modi as is the case here,” Panwala argued before the court.
He further said, “The line used by Gandhi, ‘Why are all thieves nicknamed Modi’, does not denigrate a community because there is no such community.”
Panwala told the court that the ongoing proceedings in the case were ‘defective’ as the procedure laid down under section 202 (postponement of issue of process) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in such cases was not followed.
“Rahul Gandhi lives in Delhi, which is outside the jurisdiction of the (Surat) court. For such accused, the law requires the witnesses to be examined, and the matter inquired into. The court is then required to show cause What is required to be done whether to issue summons or not No such thing was followed.
The next hearing of the case will be on March 13.
The trial in the four-year-old case resumed after the Gujarat High Court recently lifted the interim stay on the proceedings imposed in March last year.
According to the complainant, Gandhi had defamed the entire Modi community with his “common surname” remark at an election rally.
The former Congress president had pleaded not guilty during his appearance before a Surat court in October 2019, when he recorded his statement in a case filed under sections 499 and 500 (dealing with defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). did.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)