Surat: A court in Surat found Congress leader Rahul Gandhi guilty and sentenced him to two years in prison on Thursday in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname.
The court granted Gandhi bail for 30 days and allowed him to appeal the decision.
Gandhi, Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad, arrived in Surat earlier in the day and was received by top leaders of the party in the state. Congress supporters and party members assembled at various spots in the city as a show of strength and support for Gandhi, with posters eulogising him as ‘Sher-e-Hindustan’ (lion of Hindustan) and placards declaring that the “Congress will not bow before the dictatorship of the BJP” on display.
The case was filed against Gandhi for his alleged “how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” remarks on a complaint lodged by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi.
Gandhi made the alleged remarks while addressing a rally at Kolar in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
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.
(IANS)
