Surat district court on Monday granted bail to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Modi surname defamation case.
Gandhi had appealed against his conviction at the distinct court in Surat, Gujarat for which hearing will begin on April 13. The Congress leader’s sentence in the case has been suspended till the disposal of his appeal.
Rahul Gandhi was convicted in the case after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader filed a case stating that his comment calling those with ‘Modi’ surname thieves was derogatory to Other Backward Classes (OBC).
He made the remark in April 2019 while campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka’s Kolar.
The court accepted Gandhi’s petition and scheduled it for a hearing on April 13. However, he also faces another deadline to vacate his official residence in New Delhi, which was allotted to him as an MP, by April 22.
During his campaign, Gandhi stated that “all thieves have Modi surname”, equating Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fugitives like Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi. On March 23, a lower court in Surat found him guilty of defaming the entire Modi community in a case filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi. The former Congress president was subsequently disqualified from the Lok Sabha under a rule that bars convicted MPs from holding Lok Sabha membership.
