Rahul Gandhi sentenced to 2 years in jail in Modi surname defamation case; gets bail to appeal
HY News
23 March, 2023 12:19 pm IST
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A court in Gujarat's Surat city, on Thursday, convicted Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case against him over his alleged Modi surname remark. He has been sentenced to 2 years in jail by the court. Moments later, Gandhi was granted bail by the court and the order was stayed for a period of 30 days so the Congress leader can appeal in a higher court
Rahul Gandhi has been convicted under IPC Section 504. The maximum possible punishment under this section is two years.
The case was filed against Gandhi on a complaint lodged by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi for remarks he had made at a Lok Sabha election rally in Karnataka’s Kolar on April 13, 2019.
“Why all the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi in their names,” the Congress leader had allegedly said during the rally.
On Friday, Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Verma heard the final arguments in the defamation case.
Gandhi’s counsel Kirit Panwala made the final arguments before the court. “We will today send a message to Rahul Gandhi to remain present on March 23 in the Surat district court. Most probably, he would be present in the court. We will get confirmation on Saturday,” said Panwala.
Gandhi had last appeared before the Surat court in the case, filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (dealing with defamation), in October 2021 to record his statement.
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