Patiala: Former Atam Nagar MLA and senior Congress leader Simarjit Singh Bains said he would challenge his one-year prison sentence in a criminal defamation case before Patiala Sessions Court and petition Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana high court.A day after Patiala chief judicial magistrate court convicted him, Bains called the verdict a “blow to democracy and freedom of speech,” and said it would not deter his campaign against corruption.“This issue is not merely about my imprisonment. It is a grave assault on constitutional rights, free expression, and the voice of the opposition,” he said. Bains expressed faith in the higher judiciary, saying his legal advisers found “no substantive legal footing” in the ruling after 297 hearings over nearly eight years. The case dates to 2018, when Bains, then Lok Insaaf Party chief, accused aides of then Punjab health minister and senior Congress leader Brahm Mohindra of operating an illicit network dealing in spurious medicines and intoxicating pills. Mohindra subsequently filed the criminal defamation case.Comparing his case with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Surat defamation trial, Bains said: “Just as Rahul Gandhi refused to be silenced after his conviction and continued speaking truth to power, I too will not back down. Sending me to jail cannot muzzle my voice.” Bains said he had spent nearly five years in prison over 13 stints during his 25-year political career.The court on Monday sentenced him to one year of rigorous imprisonment and later granted him bail to appeal.
