Chennai, Mar 23 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said that he spoke to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after the latter was convicted by a Surat court for two years imprisonment in a case related to speaking ill of Modi surname.

The court convicted him under Section 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the IPC. As per the prosecution, Rahul while addressing a public meeting in Karnataka asked, "Why do all the thieves have Modi as their names. Whether it is Nirav Modi or Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi."

BJP legislator from Gujarat, Purnesh Modi, had filed a criminal defamation suit against Rahul Gandhi in which he said that the Congress leader had defamed the entire Modi community by his statement.

Stalin said that the BJP government at the Centre was targeting opposition leaders. He said that this was highly deplorable.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister in a statement on Thursday said that he had spoken to Rahul Gandhi over the telephone. Stalin said that Rahul was his brother and that he was unfairly targeted.

He said that BJP was trampling democratic rights of opposition parties and that such acts would not last long.