In a criminal defamation lawsuit, Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi received a two-year prison term.
The Gujarat state court found Mr. Gandhi guilty for remarks he made in 2019 during an electoral rally regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s last name.
He has been granted bail for 30 days, so he won’t be arrested right away and has the option of appealing his verdict.
A year before the scheduled general elections, the punishment hearing was attended by the Congress party MP.
According to news sources at the time, Mr. Gandhi was referring to the wanted diamond tycoon Nirav Modi and the former Indian Premier League president Lalit Modi when he made the comment during a political rally in the Karnataka state ahead of the 2019 general election.
Purnesh Modi, a politician for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power in India, brought the lawsuit on the grounds that Mr. Gandhi’s remarks had disparaged the whole Modi community.