Indian opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, has been sentenced to two years in prison over a statement he made.
Mr Gandhi was convicted by the court in Gujarat state for a comment he made in 2019 about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The statement was regarding the Prime Minister’s surname during an election rally.
However, he will not go to jail immediately as he has been granted bail for 30 days and will file an appeal against the conviction.
The Statement
Speaking at an election rally in Karnataka state in April 2019, Mr Gandhi said, “Why do all these thieves have Modi as their surname? Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi”.
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.
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However, Mr Gandhi argued that he had made the comment to highlight corruption and it was not directed against any community.
Legal Battle
The case against him was filed based on a complaint by Purnesh Modi, a lawmaker from India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party.
The lawmaker said that Mr Gandhi’s comments had defamed the entire Modi community.
However, some individuals have said they are puzzled by the order.
Legal scholar Gautam Bhatia tweeted that “references to a generic class of persons” – surnames in this case – are not “actionable unless an individual can show a direct reference to themselves”.
“If a man says ‘all lawyers are thieves’, then I, as a lawyer, cannot file a case against him for defamation unless I can show its imputation aimed at me,” Mr Bhatia said.
Under India’s criminal defamation law, there can be a maximum prison sentence of two years, a fine, or both.
