Modi surname defamation case: Rahul Gandhi files appeal in Surat court, hearing on conviction stay on April 13

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reached Surat on Monday and filed an appeal against his conviction by a lower court in a defamation case over his 2019 remark about the surname Modi. The Surat court extended the 52-year-old ‘disqualified’ Lok Sabha MP’s bail with the next hearing to be held on April 13.

Gandhi had reached Surat with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and reached the sessions court to appeal against the ruling of a lower court in the city. The Surat court had given Rahul Gandhi a two year sentence in a ruling that has created massive uproar and backlash from the opposition against the ruling BJP. The conviction was followed by Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Wayanad seat the next day.

Rahul Gandhi had linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's last name with two fugitive Indian businessmen. He had remarked how the “thieves” shared the same last name. A lower Surat court had convicted him for making an alleged defamatory remark and granted 30 days to appeal the verdict.

A notice was issued to respondent Purnesh Modi, a BJP MLA and former Gujarat cabinet minister whose complaint had led to the case against Gandhi. Modi has been asked by the sessions court to file his reply by April 10.

“We had filed an application for Rahul Gandhi's bail and suspension of sentence along with his appeal against conviction by a lower court. The (sessions) court heard the matter and granted him bail. The court kept the matter for hearing on the stay of his conviction for April 13,” a member of Gandhi’s legal team told reporters. Gandhi will not be required to appear in the court during the case hearing, he added.

(Inputs from PTI)