Court sentences Congress leader to two years in jail for calling PM \u2018thief\u2019 three years ago
\n AHMEDABAD
\nA court in western India found opposition leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation on Thursday for a speech he made in 2019 in which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi, and sentenced him to two years in prison.
\nGandhi was present at the court in Surat, a city in Gujarat, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s home state. He was given bail and the sentence was suspended for thirty days.
\nGandhi would appeal against the verdict in a higher court, the president of his Congress party said on Twitter, calling Modi\u2019s government \u201ccowardly and dictatorial\u201d.
\n\u201cThe Modi government is a victim of political bankruptcy\u201d, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
\nThe criminal defamation case was filed against Gandhi by a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after a speech during the 2019 general election in which he referred to the surname Modi and asked how all thieves had the surname.
\n\u201cThe court has found Rahul Gandhi\u2019s comment to be defamatory. He has been sentenced to two years in jail,\u201d Ketan Reshamwala, advocate for complainant Purnesh Modi, said.
\nGandhi said in court that he had made the comment to highlight corruption and not against any community.
\nGandhi is one of the main opposition leaders in the country who will go up against Modi when he seeks his third term as prime minister in 2024.
\nGandhi\u2019s once-dominant Congress controls less than 10% of the elected seats in parliament\u2019s lower house and has lost badly to the BJP in two successive general elections, most recently in 2019.
\nModi remains India\u2019s most popular politician by a substantial margin and is widely expected to win a third victory at the next general election in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Court sentences Congress leader to two years in jail for calling PM \u2018thief\u2019 three years ago AHMEDABAD A court in western India found opposition leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation on Thursday for a speech he made in 2019 in which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi, and sentenced him to two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-321328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n