Surat: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was sentenced to two years in prison in a criminal defamation case, 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.
The former president of Congress, arrived in Surat to file the appeal in 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 Gandhi's petition and scheduled it for a hearing on April 13.
Rahul Gandhi meanwhile faces another deadline to vacate his official residence in New Delhi, which was allotted to him as an MP, by April 22.
During his campaign, Gandhi 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.
Gandhi was given the maximum 2-year jail term for his offence, but the sentence was suspended for 30 days for 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.
Rahul Gandhi, after getting bail by the court, said that "truth" is his "weapon in this struggle".
In series of tweets 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".
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi reached Surat, accompanied by sister and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi while various Congress Chief Ministers received him at the airport.
Thousands of Congress workers trooping down to Surat city have been halted in their tracks and prevented from going there to express solidarity with senior leader Rahul Gandhi, top office-bearers said here on Monday.
Leader of Congress Legislature Party Balasaheb Thorat said that Congressmen are going to Surat from all over India, including Maharashtra but the Gujarat Police are not allowing them to proceed ahead.
"Vehicles carrying Congress activists and leaders from here have been halted at Navsari on the highway, they are under the strict watch of the police to ensure nobody can get down and join Gandhi in Surat... This is nothing but trampling of democracy," said Thorat sharply.
Around 10,000 Congress activists from all over Maharashtra, especially from Nashik, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Nandurbar, Pune, Mumbai and other districts went in buses, trucks and smaller vehicles from early morning to Surat to give 'moral support' to Gandhi in his legal-political battle.
Among the senior leaders, who were stopped, were Thorat and former Minister Yashomati Thakur but after they registered strong protests, they were allowed to leave, said a party office-bearer in Mumbai.
However, hundreds of other Congressmen, Youth Congress and Mahila Congress activists were stopped and barred from going ahead and their vehicles have been parked beside the highway behind police barricades, and they are not permitted to even step out of the vehicle, he added.
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