Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was sentenced to two-year imprisonment in a criminal defamation case over his alleged ‘Modi surname’ remark in April 2019, was granted bail extension by a sessions court in Gujarat’s Surat on Monday.

The court will hear his appeal against conviction in the case on April 13.

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Earlier, a lower court had given Gandhi the maximum of two-year jail term for his offence, but had suspended the sentence for 30 days with a bail to enable him to file an appeal against the order. If the conviction is not overturned, he will be disqualified from contesting elections for the next eight years.

On Monday, Rahul Gandhi arrived in Surat to file the appeal in the sessions court against a lower court’s order that found him guilty of criminal defamation. The charges stemmed from a remark he made in April 2019 while campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka’s Kolar.

The court accepted the Congress leader’s petition and scheduled it for a hearing on April 13.

After the court’s order today, Rahul Gandhi said that “truth” is his “weapon in this struggle”.

In a tweet in Hindi, Gandhi proclaimed that it was “a fight to save democracy” and against “mitra kaal”, and “in this struggle, truth is my weapon and truth is my shelter”.

Rahul Gandhi was accompanied by sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi to Surat. He was received at the airport by various Congress Chief Ministers.

Meanwhile, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju alleged that the Congress party is indulging in a drama to “threaten the judiciary”. “They (Congress leaders) are doing a drama to threaten the judiciary. I condemn it. If a court has convicted somebody, then the drama is basically about pressuring. Congress party considers a family above the country,” he told reporters outside Parliament.

Rijiju also posted a tweet: “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.”

The Union minister said, “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.”

Thousands of Congress workers trooped down to Surat city but have been halted in their tracks and prevented from going there to express solidarity with senior leader Rahul Gandhi, party leaders said.

Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a member of the Lower House on March 24, a day after his conviction by the Surat court in a defamation case for a remark using the ‘Modi surname’ at a rally in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

During his campaign for the Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi had stated that “all thieves have Modi surname”, equating Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fugitives like Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi. On March 23, a lower court in Surat found him guilty of defaming the entire Modi community in a case filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi. The former Congress president was subsequently disqualified from the Lok Sabha under a rule that bars convicted MPs from holding Lok Sabha membership.