Rahul Gandhi gets two years in jail for defamation

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Rahul Gandhi gets two years in jail for defamation

India's Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi speaks during a public meeting on January 30, 2023 amid heavy snowfall as he concludes the Bharat Jodo Yatra'' march in Srinagar. A court in western India found opposition leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of Defamation on Thursday for a speech he made in the year 2019 in which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi, and sentenced him two years in prison.

The court in Surat, a city in Gujarat, is the home of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sentence was suspended for thirty days and he was given bail.

The president of his Congress party said on Wednesday that Gandhi would appeal against the verdict in a higher court. He said that Modi's government was cowardly and dictatorial. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said he was a victim of political bankruptcy.

A leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party BJP brought in a criminal defamation case against Gandhi after a speech during the 2019 general election in which he referred to the surname Modi and asked how all thieves had the surname.

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The court found Rahul Gandhi's comment to be defamatory. Ketan Reshamwala, an advocate for complainant Purnesh Modi, said he was sentenced to two years in jail.

Gandhi said in court that he had made a comment to highlight corruption and not against any community.

Gandhi is one of the main opposition leaders in the country who will face Modi when he seeks his third term as prime minister in 2024.

Gandhi's once-dominant Congress controls less than 10 percent of the elected seats in parliament's lower house and has lost badly to the BJP in two successive general elections, most recently in 2019.

Modi is expected to win a third election in 2024 and is India's most popular politician by a large margin.