Rahul Gandhi Defamation Case: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was convicted and awarded two years jail term by a court in Gujarat's Surat in a 2019 defamaiton case on Thursday. However, soon after the pronunciation of the sentence, the court granted him bail and his two-year sentence was suspended for 30 days to appeal against the quantum of punishment.
If Rahul Gandhi goes to jail, which is unlikely very soon as he will take the legal battle to the higher courts, his name will be included in the list of Congress leaders who were jailed for various reasons. When they went to jail, it created huge political outrage in the country.
Take a look at the list of jailed Congress leaders:
Indira Gandhi: Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was jailed by the Parliament on December 19, 1978. She was expelled from the Parliament for the entire session for breaching parliamentary privilege.
She was put in ward number 19 in Tihar jail, Delhi. She stayed around a week in jail. Political observers took it as punishing her by the Morarji Desai government for harassing the opposition leaders during her Emergency rule (1975-77) in the country.
Sukhram: In November 2011, senior Congress leader and former Telecom Minister Sukhram was awarded five years imprisonment by a Delhi Court for taking Rs 30 lakhs as bribe to give a lucrative contract to a private firm in 1996. Before this in 2002, he was sentenced to a 3-year jail term under the Prevention of Corruption Act in a separate case relating to equipment supply. After court judgment, he was expelled from the party. He was a seven-time MLA and three-time MP.
P Chidambaram: Former Home Minister and once number 2 Congress leader, P Chidambaram stayed 106-day in jail before getting bail from the Supreme Court in a corruption case related to the INX Media money-laundering case.
Navjot Singh Sidhu: Former Punjab Congress president and one of prime faces for the party in the state, Navjot Singh Sidhu has been in the Patiala jail in connection with 1988 road rage incident case. He was convicted by the Supreme Court for voluntarily causing hurt (Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code). Sidhu got one-year rigorous imprisonment in May 2022.
Suresh Kalmadi: Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi was a celebrated personality until corruption cases surfaced against him. He was the chairman of the organising committee for the controversial 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Pune MP was charged with criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating and other offences. Kalmadi was arrested on April 25, 2011 and was released on bail nine months later.
Kamal Nath: Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Kamal Nath was also jailed not for something doing criminal activity but for the sake of friendship with Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay Gandhi. There is a story in the political corridor that to give a company and assure Sanjay Gandhi's safety, he willingly fought a judge so that he would send him jail with his friend Sanjay. Subsequently, he was put in Tihar jail for 7 days on contempt charges in 1979.
