The Kerala High Court recently stayed the trial proceedings in a case against the staff members of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Wayanad office, accused of damaging a photograph of Mahatma Gandhi.
A single-judge Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V passed the interim order staying the proceedings in the lower court for a duration of two months.
The decision was made in response to a plea filed by the four accused individuals, Ratheesh Kumar KR, Mujeeb KA, Rahul Sujatha Ravindran, and Noushad V, seeking the quashing of the charges against them.
According to reports, on July 24, 2022, a protest march organized by the Students Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the ruling CPI(M), resulted in violence when a group of protestors allegedly entered Rahul Gandhi’s office and vandalized it.
A case was initially registered on June 24, 2022 against specific individuals associated with SFI. Subsequently, another case was registered under Section 153 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against unidentified individuals for damaging the photograph of Mahatma Gandhi, which was placed inside Rahul Gandhi’s office when he served as the Member of Parliament representing Wayanad.
The petitioners’ counsel argued that the second case was a retaliatory action following the first case, and the Personal Assistants (PAs) of Rahul Gandhi were later added as accused individuals in the second case.
Referring to the evidence presented by the prosecution, the petitioners’ counsel further contended that there was no substantiating evidence and none of the witnesses implicated the petitioners in any wrongdoing.
