Rahul gets bail in defamation case, next hearing on April 13
Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 Apr, 2023 11:17 AM
Surat, April 3 (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was sentenced to two years in prison in a criminal defamation case, was granted bail extension by a sessions court in Gujarat's Surat on Monday. The court will hear his appeal against conviction in the case on April 13.
Earlier, the former president of Congress, arrived in Surat to file the appeal in sessions court against a lower court's order that found him guilty of criminal defamation. The charges stemmed from a remark he made in April 2019 while campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka's Kolar.
The court accepted Gandhi's petition and scheduled it for a hearing on April 13. However, he also faces another deadline to vacate his official residence in New Delhi, which was allotted to him as an MP, by April 22.
During his campaign, Gandhi stated that "all thieves have Modi surname", equating Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fugitives like Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi. On March 23, a lower court in Surat found him guilty of defaming the entire Modi community in a case filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi. The former Congress president was subsequently disqualified from the Lok Sabha under a rule that bars convicted MPs from holding Lok Sabha membership.
Gandhi was given the maximum 2-year jail term for his offence, but the sentence was suspended for 30 days for him to file an appeal against the order. If the conviction is not overturned, he will be disqualified from contesting elections for the next eight years.
Director General of Police Punjab Gaurav Yadav identified the arrested accused as Ramjan Khan, alias Raj Hooda. He said police teams have also arrested his two accomplices -- Happy Mehla (19) and Sahil Mehla (18), both resident of Hanumangarh in Rajasthan.
In Cachar, three people were arrested with 1.80 lakh tablets used for intoxication on Sunday in the Lakhipur area in the district. Police informed that the international market value of seized tablets is around Rs 50 crore. The accused were identified as Abdul Saeed, Ibazur Rahman and Sameer Alam, all residents of the Cachar district.
Further, police teams have been sent to Tosh in Himachal Pradesh after it was revealed that he, along with his live-in partner, had stayed there for quite a long time. Aftab had strangled his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar on May 18 and then chopped her body into many pieces.
Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said the government has approved the OPS for its employees currently covered under New Pension Scheme (NPS), fulfilling a long-pending demand of employees of the state.
The affected girl students of Kasturba Gandhi College in West Maredpally, Secunderabad were hospitalised with complaints of breathlessness and dizziness. The college authorities denied that there was any gas leak from college lab. They said foul smell from garbage dump on the college boundary wall led to students falling ill.
Punjab has only two per cent of India's population, while it has nearly 10 per cent of the total licensed weapons which stand at nearly 4 lakh, or 13 gun licenses for every 1,000 persons in the state.
