Surat: A court here held Congress leader Rahul Gandhi guilty in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his "Modi surname" remarks.
Gandhi was also sentenced to two years in jail. Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma, on the appeal of Gandhi’s lawyers, suspended the sentence for 30 days and granted him bail on personal bond of Rs 10,000.
“Today the court found Rahul Gandhi guilty under section 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and awarded him two years jail sentence. The court has suspended the sentence for 30 days and granted bail to Rahul Gandhi,” Gandhi’s lawyer B M Mangukiya told media persons.
Mangukiya said that within few minutes of Gandhi entering the court the magistrate pronounced the verdict. “When the magistrate asked Gandhi what he had to say in his defence, the Congress leader said that he was fighting to expose corruption in the country. His comments were not meant to hurt or insult any community,” Mangukiya said outside the court.
Rahul Gandhi had arrived in Surat on Thursday for the verdict. A huge number of party functionaries assembled at various spots in the city as a show of strength and support for Gandhi, with posters extolling 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.
The Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad 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.
"Truth is put to test and is harassed, but truth alone prevails. Several false cases have been filed against Gandhi, but he will emerge from all these. We will get justice," said senior Congress leader and MLA Arjun Modhwadia on Thursday.
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.
The complaint
In his complaint, BJP MLA Purnesh Modi alleged that Gandhi, while addressing the poll rally in 2019, defamed the entire Modi community by purportedly saying, How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?
Purnesh Modi was a minister in the first tenure of the Bhupendra Patel government. The ruling party legislator was re-elected from the Surat West Assembly seat in the December elections.
The final arguments resumed in the case last month after the Gujarat High Court vacated its stay on proceedings imposed on plea by the complainant demanding Gandhi's personal appearance.
The lawyer for the complainant argued that CDs and pen drive containing the materials on Gandhi's Kolar speech established the Congress MP indeed made the Modi surname remarks, and his utterances defamed the community.
Gandhi's lawyer has argued the court proceedings were flawed from the beginning as the procedure laid down under section 202 of the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) was not followed. The CrPC section deals with postponement of issue of process.
The lawyer also argued that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and not MLA Purnesh Modi, should have been the complainant in the case because the PM was the main target of Gandhi's speech.
(With PTI inputs.)
