Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by the Surat court of the additional sessions judge pending the outcome of his appeal contesting his March 23 conviction in a criminal defamation charge brought over his statement about the "Modi surname" during a 2019 campaign rally in Karnataka's Kolar district.
Judge Robin Mogera of the Additional Sessions court set the hearing for Rahul's appeal for April 13 and gave notice to BJP Legislator Purnesh Modi of Surat (West), requesting that he respond to the legal complaint by April 10.
Rahul, who arrived at the sessions court accompanied by a busload of Congress biggies that included his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, three CMs and as many Rajya Sabha MPs, is exempted from personal appearance during the hearing of his appeal, party member and lawyer Shaktisinh Gohil said.
The appeal comprised two parts - suspension of sentence, which basically translates into a plea for regular bail, and suspension of conviction. Rahul was found guilty, but the chief judicial magistrate's court postponed his sentence for 30 days so he could challenge the ruling in a higher court.
“The basis of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament was the (two-year) sentence. Hence, our appeal to the court was to grant bail and stay the conviction (in which case the sentence automatically stands cancelled)," Gohil said. As he had done on the day of his disqualification, Rahul declared on Twitter, “This is a fight against ‘mitrakaal’ and to save democracy. In this struggle, truth is my weapon and armour.”
With Rahul there were the chief ministers of Rajasthan's Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel, and Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, as well as several other Congress office-bearers.