Gandhi can now take his appeal to a larger bench of the same high court and then to the Supreme Court, his last option. "How come all thieves have the name Modi?," Gandhi had asked in an election campaign speech, referring to two fugitive businessmen, both surnamed Modi. Gandhi has separately challenged the conviction in a district court, which is yet to hear the case. "The refusal of stay of conviction would not in any way result in injustice to the applicant," the judge said. "There is no reasonable ground to stay the conviction of the applicant in view of the facts and circumstances of the case."

---

Persons: Rahul Gandhi, Gandhi, Purnesh Modi, Narendra Modi, Modi, Hemant Prachchhak, Jairam Ramesh, Ramesh, Abhishek Singhvi, India's, YP Rajesh, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, YP, Thomson Locations: DELHI, India, Gujarat