Indian court orders Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail for Modi comment
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[March 23, 2023]
By Sumit Khanna and Arpan Chaturvedi
AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) -A lower court in India sentenced opposition
leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday to two years in jail on charges of
defamation for a 2019 speech in which he referred to thieves as having
the surname Modi.
Gandhi will appeal against the order in a higher court, but any jailing
for him or his disqualification from parliament would be a blow to his
Congress party ahead of the 2024 general election, which Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's party is widely expected to win.
The judgment was passed by a magistrate's court in the city of Surat,
located in Modi's home state of Gujarat. The case was brought by a
Gujarat lawmaker from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Gandhi, the 52-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, was
present at the Surat court, which gave him bail immediately and
suspended the sentence for a month.
"Accused Rahul Gandhi is held guilty ... and sentenced to two years
simple imprisonment," Harish Varma, the chief judicial magistrate of
Surat, said in his order.
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Ketan Reshamwala, an advocate for complainant Purnesh Modi, said the
court had found Gandhi's comment defamatory.
An adviser to the federal government, Kanchan Gupta, said Gandhi could
face immediate disqualification from parliament following the
conviction, in line with a 2013 order of the country's highest court.
"So while it appears from reports that Mr. Gandhi's sentence has been
suspended by the court that convicted him, he would have to soon obtain
a stay on the conviction from an appellate court to save himself from
disqualification," said lawyer Vikram Hegde.
In the speech ahead of the last general election in 2019, Gandhi
referred to the prime minister and two fugitive Indian businessmen, all
surnamed Modi, while talking about alleged high-level corruption in the
country.
On Thursday, Gandhi, a former Congress president who is currently an
influential MP, told the court that his comment was not against any
community.
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![](../images/032323PIX/news_z38.jpg)
Rahul Gandhi, a leader of India's main
opposition Congress party, addresses the crowd at a public rally
held during the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra (Unite India March), in
Panipat, India, January 6, 2023. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis/File
Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jul/22/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png)
Congress members rallied behind Gandhi, with many state units
planning protests later in the day and on Friday.
"The Modi government is a victim of political bankruptcy", Congress
president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Twitter. "We will appeal in the
higher court."
Gandhi also received support from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that
rules Delhi and two of whose top leaders are in jail on what they
call trumped-up charges.
"A conspiracy is being hatched to eliminate non-BJP leaders and
parties by prosecuting them," AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal wrote on Twitter.
"We have differences with the Congress, but it is not right to
implicate Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case like this. It is the job
of the public and the opposition to ask questions. We respect the
court but disagree with the decision."
Gandhi's once-dominant Congress controls less than 10% of the
elected seats in parliament's lower house and lost badly to the BJP
in the last two general elections.
Modi remains India's most popular politician by a substantial margin
and opinion polls have shown he is expected to win a third victory
at the election next year.
Unlike in many countries, where defamation is a civil offence,
Indian law also has provisions which classify it as a criminal
offence punishable with a jail term of up to two years.
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(Reporting by Sumit Khanna in Ahmedabad and Arpan Chaturvedi and Y.P.
Rajesh in New Delhi; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Krishna N.
Das; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, William Maclean)
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