'Truth Alone Triumphs!', says Kharge after Supreme Court stays Rahul Gandhi's conviction

Shortly after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Modi surname defamation case, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday welcomed the court verdict saying "Truth Alone Triumphs!" and attacked the BJP for conspiratorial hounding of Gandhi.Taking to Twitter, the Congress chief said," Truth Alone Triumphs! We welcome the verdict by the Hon’ble Supreme Court giving relief to Shri @RahulGandhi. Justice has been delivered. Democracy has won. The Constitution has been upheld."Attacking the BJP, he said that saffron party's conspiratorial hounding of Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed. "Time for them to stop their malicious targeting of Opposition leaders. It is high time they respect the mandate given by the people and start governing the country, on which they have miserably failed in the last 10 years," added Kharge.Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi got a big relief after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the 2019 defamation case, paving the way for revival of his Lok Sabha membership.The Lok Sabha speaker can now revive his membership on his own or Gandhi, armed with the apex court order, seek restoration of his status as an MP.A three-judge bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case.The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the defamation case filed by Purnesh Modi over his "Modi surname" remark.Gandhi had persistently refused to apologise for his remark but urged the Supreme Court to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case stemming from his comment, asserting he is not guilty.Purnesh Modi had filed the criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on 13 April, 2019.With inputs from agencies