Surat court extends bail to Rahul Gandhi; Kiran Rijuji says Gandhi scion going court personally is ‘drama’

A Surat court on Monday extended the bail granted to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in connection with criminal defamation case and set 13 April as the next date of hearing.

Gandhi was accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and three Congress chief ministers Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu as he filed his plea.

“We are confident the appeals court will appreciate blatant errors of (the) trial court and do justice expeditiously,” Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi, the Congress leader supervising Rahul Gandhi’s legal team, said earlier in the day.

The now disqualified parliamentarian from Wayanad was convicted by a magistrate court on March 23 for his controversial remark “All thieves have Modi surname.” During an election rally in 2019 he had said: “Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi. How come all the thieves have ‘Modi’ as a common surname?” Following this, Purnesh Modi, a former BJP Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), took exception to the remarks and claimed the Gandhi scion had humiliated and defamed persons with the Modi surname.

The magistrate court in Surat accepted the contention of Modi that by his speech, Gandhi has intentionally insulted the people with a ‘Modi’ surname.

The verdict was crucial because it meant that Gandhi could not contest an election for eight years, ruling him out of the 2024 Lok Sabha poll unless the conviction and sentence are stayed.

Meanwhile, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju made a scathing attack on Gandhi for personally going to file an appeal with a group of party leaders, calling it a “drama”. He said: “Rahul Gandhi might be going to Surat to file an Appeal. It is not required of a convict to go personally to file an Appeal.  Generally, no convict goes personally. His going personally with a motley group of leaders and aides accompanying him is only a drama.”

Rijuji also tagged BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra’s press conference video, in which he said that the former Congress MP is going to Surat with his family and some of his party colleagues “with pomp and show” to “repeat and add to the insult” of the OBC community.

He said that it was a childish act by the Congress leader. “What Rahul Gandhi is doing is also a childish attempt to bring pressure on the appellate court. All courts in the country are immune from such tactics,” he added.