Rahul Gandhi gets two years jail in Modi surname defamation case, granted bail  

SURAT: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was found guilty and sentenced to two years in a defamation case filed in 2019 over his remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surname by a court in Gujarat's Surat. However, he was granted bail and his sentence was suspended for 30 days to let him appeal the decision.

The case was filed against Rahul by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi for saying ‘how come all thieves have the common surname Modi?’

Rahul made the remarks while addressing a rally at Kolar in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, targeting Modi over his last name which he shares with fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate H H Varma had last week concluded hearing final arguments from both sides and said it was ready to pronounce its judgment in the four-year-old defamation case, Rahul’s lawyer Kirit Panwala had said.

Gandhi had last appeared before the Surat court in the case, in October 2021 to record his statement.