On Monday, a Surat court granted bail to former Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi in the ‘Modi’ surname remark case, revolving around his statement made in 2019, wherein he said that all people with the surname ‘Modi’ are thieves. The matter will next be heard on April 13th by the sessions court.
Gandhi had reached the Surat court to appeal his conviction by a lower court in Surat, in the afternoon, via a scheduled commercial flight along with sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several other Congress leaders like Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, and Himachal Pradesh CM, Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu. Gandhi does not need to appear for the next hearing on 13th April.
It was last month that he was convicted and sentenced to prison for 2 years by a lower court in Surat in the defamation case filed against him for calling every person bearing the ‘Modi’ surname, a thief. The court had then given him a time period of 30 days to appeal this verdict. And as per a 2013 decision of the Supreme Court, he was disqualified as a member of the Parliament, therefore, losing his MP status from Wayanad. If his conviction is not reversed, his disqualification will stand and he will be barred to contest in elections for the next 8 years. In the meantime, he is also required to vacate the government bungalow he resides in.
