Rahul Gandhi convicted by Surat court in 2019 'Modi surname' defamation case, granted bail [details]

A Surat district court in Gujarat on Thursday convicted Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case against him over his alleged 'Modi surname' remark in April 2019.

Gandhi was convicted under IPC sections 499 and 500. The maximum possible punishment under this section is two years.

The Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate H.H. Varma sentenced him to two years in jail and also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 after finding him guilty; however, on Rahul Gandhi's plea, his sentence has been suspended and bail has been granted to enable him to move an appeal against his conviction within 30 days.

The lawyer representing Rahul Gandhi said that they will move to session court soon.

BJP MLA and former Gujarat Minister Purnesh Modi had filed the case against Rahul Gandhi for his alleged "how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remarks while addressing a rally at Kolar in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The remarks were video graphed by the video surveillance team and video viewing team of the office of Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer, Kollar District.

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.

Addressing an election rally in Karnataka's Kolar district on April 13, 2019, Rahul Gandhi had said, "I have a question. Why do all thieves have Modi in their names whether be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, and Narendra Modi? We don't know how many more such Modis will come out." The Congress leader was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bank-fraud accused Nirav Modi and former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi.

Surat Chief Judicial Magistrate H.H. Varma last week had concluded hearing the final arguments from both sides and set March 23 to pronounce its judgment.

Rahul Gandhi's reaction

Rahul Gandhi in his first reaction after being convicted by a Surat court on Thursday said, "my religion is truth".

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Rahul said in a tweet in Hindi, "My religion is based on truth and non-violence, truth is my God, and non-violence is a way to achieve it."

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also tweeted (in Hindi) and said, "The fearful powers are using all methods to down the voice of Rahul Gandhi, but my brother has never been afraid. We have lived while speaking the truth and will always speak the truth and raise voice for the nation."

She said that Rahul's strength is the power of truth and the crores of people behind him.

Gandhi has maintained that there was no mala fide intention on his part when he made the statement in question.

(With inputs from IANS)