SURAT: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was found guilty in 2019 criminal defamation case over his remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname has been granted a 30 day bail for appealing the order by the Surat court. The Surat court on Thursday, sentenced Gandhi to two years in prison. Rahul Gandhi has been convicted under IPC Section 504. The maximum possible punishment under this section is two years.
The case was filed against Rahul Gandhi for his alleged “how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” remark on a complaint lodged by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi. The complainant claimed that the controversial remark was made at a rally at Kolar in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which defamed the entire Modi community.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma had last week concluded hearing final arguments from both sides and set March 23 to pronounce its judgment in the four-year-old defamation case, Gandhi’s lawyer Kirit Panwala had said. “Truth is put to test and is harassed, but truth alone prevails. Several false cases have been filed against Gandhi, but he will emerge from all these.
The Congress on Thursday put up posters backing Rahul Gandhi. The posters were put up outside the Surat Court where the Congress MP arrived for the court proceedings. The posters said “let’s go to Surat in support of democracy” along with pictures of Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev.