Surat: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname by a court in Gujarat’s Surat. He was also granted bail for 30 days and allowed to appeal the decision.
Gandhi arrived in Surat earlier in the day and was received by top leaders of the Congress’s Gujarat unit. Supporters and members of the party turned out at various spots in the city as a show of strength and support for Gandhi, with posters extolling him as ‘Sher-e-Hindustan’ (Lion of India) and placards declaring that the “Congress will not bow before the dictatorship of the BJP” on display.
The Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad made the remarks while addressing a rally at Kolar in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, targeting PM Modi over his last name which he shares with fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.
The case was filed against Gandhi for his saying “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi.
In his complaint, BJP MLA Purnesh Modi alleged that Gandhi, while addressing the poll rally in 2019, defamed the entire Modi community.
Gandhi’s lawyer has argued the court proceedings were “flawed” from the beginning
