Show no leniency to Rahul Gandhi: BJP MLA to Supreme Court | India News

NEW DELHI: Purnesh Ishwarbhai Modi, the BJP MLA whose plea resulted in Rahul Gandhi’s conviction and two-year imprisonment for the Modi-surname defamatory jibe, on Monday told the Supreme Court not to show leniency to the accused, saying that the Congress leader’s controversial remark slandering the entire community with the Modi surname reflected his deep-rooted hatred towards the Prime Minister.

In his affidavit responding to Gandhi’s plea for stay of conviction, that is aimed at disabling his disqualification and enabling him to get back to Parliament as MP from Wayanad in Kerala during the term of the current Lok Sabha, the MLA from Gujarat said the trial court has convicted and sentenced Gandhi on the basis of conclusive evidence and though the sentence was suspended, the appellate court and the Gujarat HC have refused to stay the conviction.
The affidavit, settled by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, said, “Gandhi has maliciously and recklessly used scurrilous words against a large totally blameless class of persons of both common surname and some of common caste who have caused no harm to Gandhi.”

“The (defamatory) statement was made out of (Gandhi’s) personal hatred towards the elected PM and the extent of the hatred was so great he was impelled to cast grossly defamatory aspersions on persons who incidentally bore the same surname as the PM. The offence for which he had been convicted by the trial court is accordingly actuated by patent malice aforethought and the petitioner deserves no sympathy regarding the quantum of sentence imposed,” it said.
The petitioner criticized Gandhi for failing to adhere to political discourse standards. He emphasized that as a party President at that time and a MP, Gandhi should have set higher standards. Modi questioned the need for branding an entire class as thieves based on their surname, even if he disagreed with the PM.
He also accused Gandhi for misrepresenting SC orders in 2019 to public about court’s endorsement of his ‘chowkidar chor hai’ insinuation at PM and later apologising to avoid contempt of court.