Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday took a jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the 2019 Modi surname defamation case.

“Heights of duplicity! You abuse the judiciary when you get convicted, and when the same judiciary grants you bail, you say justice has prevailed”, Sarma posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

On Friday, the top court stayed Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in the defamation case filed over his “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?” remark during a 2019 Lok Sabha poll rally in Karnataka.

Not just Sarma, Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell head Amit Malviya took a swipe at Gandhi over the top court relief. The saffron party leader posted “Bakre ki amma kab tak khair manayegi”, which in Hindi translates to the apocalypse cannot be avoided.

“Rahul Gandhi may have survived this one but for how long? On an earlier occasion, no less than the Supreme Court had pulled him up for attributing, wrongly to them, an observation, they had not made. Besides, there are several other criminal defamation cases pending against Rahul Gandhi, including the high profile case of mudslinging the venerable Veer Savarkar, filed by the freedom fighter’s family”, Malviya posted on X.

“Rahul Gandhi is also an accused, along with his mother Sonia Gandhi, in the National Herald scam, and currently out on bail. Conviction in any of these can lead to his disqualification, again. Let’s not forget that veteran leaders like Lalu Prasad, J Jayalalitha among others have faced disqualification, following convictions. Rahul Gandhi is on thin ice here. But for now the Parliament can do with some levity”, he added.

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Earlier, reacting on the apex court verdict, Gandhi had said,“Aaj nahi toh kal, kal nahi toh parson sachai ki jeet hoti hai (If not today, tomorrow truth will triumph). But my path is clear. I have clarity in my mind that what I have to do and what is my work. I thank the people who helped us. I also thank the people for their love and support”.