Raut hails apex court stay on Rahul conviction, says 'justice is alive'

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Friday said ''justice is alive'' after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark.

Raut, whose party is an ally of the Congress, said post the verdict the Lok Sabha Speaker should revoke Gandhi's disqualification, which kicked in after his conviction and two-year jail term handed by the trial court in Surat in the case, from the Lower House of Parliament.

Gandhi's disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP was a pre-decided move with a motive to "throw" him out of Parliament because of the kind of attacks he had been staging against the BJP-led government in the last two years, alleged the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader.

"He was punished for the atmosphere he created through his Bharat Jodo Yatra, and not for his comments on Modi surname. Justice is alive in the Supreme Court," Raut said.

He questioned the decisions of courts in Gujarat.

"I don't understand why Rahul Gandhi was convicted (by the Surat trial court). What did the High Court do? The High Court (which declined to stay his conviction) should have taken a stand on the decision, but no court in Gujarat has any relation to the Constitution and justice," he claimed.

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction of Gandhi in the 2019 criminal defamation case, filed by a Gujarat BJP MLA, over his ''How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?'' remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka more than four years ago.

A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar, however, said the utterances were not in good taste and added that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making speeches.