Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has been sentenced to two years in prison in a criminal defamation case.
Gandhi was convicted by a court in Gujarat state for comments made in 2019 about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname during an election rally.
At the rally in Karnataka state in April 2019, ahead of the last general election, Gandhi had said: “Why do all these thieves have Modi as their surname? Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi.”
He will not go to jail immediately – he was granted bail for 30 days and will file an appeal against the conviction.
The Congress party MP was present in court for sentencing, which comes a year before general elections are due.
Nirav Modi is a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon while Lalit Modi is a former chief of the Indian Premier League who has been banned for life by the country’s cricket board.
Gandhi argued that he had made the comment to highlight corruption and it was not directed against any community.
The case against him was filed on the basis of a complaint by Purnesh Modi, a lawmaker from India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party, who said Gandhi’s comments had defamed the entire Modi community.
