'Cong leaders, workers will continue to fight politically, legally'

NEW DELHI: After the Gujarat High Court refused to stay Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a defamation case, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said no party leader or worker is afraid of BJP’s “political conspiracy” and will fight the battle both legally and politically.

He alleged that the BJP used “lies as part of a political conspiracy” to get Rahul Gandhi suspended from Parliament and asserted that the Congress leader has been fighting for truth and will continue his fight.

“Shri Rahul Gandhi has always fought for the truth and will continue to fight in the future. The truth is that fugitives like Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi, Mehul ‘Bhai’, Vijay Mallya, and Jatin Mehta, under the supervision of the Modi government fled the country and reached abroad suspiciously after taking public money.

“The BJP freed them but used lies as part of a political conspiracy, to put Mr. Rahul Gandhi in the dock and got him suspended from Parliament,” Kharge alleged in a tweet in Hindi.

The Congress chief also claimed that “in BJP rule, firstly, the corrupt people run away, and on the other hand, Modi ji’s party plays the game of grabbing power by washing those accused of corruption in its washing machine as part of BJP’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'”.

“The country is now well aware of Modi ji’s double standards on corruption. None of the Congress leaders or workers are afraid of this political conspiracy. We will fight both the political and the legal battle. Satyamev Jayate,” he said on Twitter.

Kharge’s strong reaction came after the Gujarat High Court dismissed Gandhi’s plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.

While dismissing the plea, Justice Hemant Prachchhak noted that Gandhi was already facing 10 criminal cases across India, adding that the order of the lower court was “just, proper and legal” in handing over a two-year jail term to Gandhi for his remarks.

The court noted that there is no reasonable ground to stay the conviction.

A metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat on March 23 had sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail after convicting him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation) in a 2019 case filed by BJP Gujarat MLA Purnesh Modi.

After the verdict, the Congress party said it would challenge the high court order in the Supreme Court.