Online Desk: Disqualified Indian Congress lawmaker Rahul Gandhi will tomorrow move an appeal before a court in Gujarat state against his conviction in a criminal defamation case. Rahul Gandhi was on March 24 disqualified from the Lok Sabha following his conviction by a Surat court in the criminal defamation case, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Rahul, the 52-year-old scion of the Gandhi family, is likely to remain present in the sessions court in Surat when the plea will be filed challenging the lower court’s order sentencing him to two years in jail, PTI and ANI reported today quoting unnamed sources. “A petition challenging the lower court order will be filed in the sessions court of Surat on Monday, with Rahul Gandhi remaining present,” a member of his legal team said requesting anonymity.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma in Surat had on March 23 convicted Rahul Gandhi and sentenced him to two years in jail in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his “Why all thieves have Modi surname” remark. It held Rahul Gandhi guilty under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500.

The court had also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to appeal in a higher court.