NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was held guilty by a court in Surat in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his alleged 'Modi surname' remarks. The Surat District Court pronounced the verdict in the case for his alleged "how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remarks on a complaint lodged by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi.

Gandhi had made the alleged remarks about Modi's surname at a rally in Karnataka's Kolar, ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Last week, the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma concluded hearing final arguments from both sides and set March 23 to pronounce its judgment in the four-year-old defamation case.