A court in Pune (Maharashtra) has passed an order directing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to appear before it in response to a complaint filed by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s grandnephew.
The petitioner’s lawyer claimed that Gandhi defamed the Hindutva ideologue. During the hearing, Gandhi was not represented by any lawyer, and the detailed order is yet to be made available.
‘Defamed’
The order was passed by judicial magistrate (first class) Akshi Jain. This development came two days after Pune police stated in a report that there was prima facie truth in the complaint filed by Satyaki Savarkar, who alleged that the Congress leader defamed the late freedom fighter in a speech made in London in 2023.
The court scheduled the next hearing for August 19, 2024.
Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, the lawyer for Satyaki Savarkar, claimed that the judge had asked Gandhi to appear before the court on that date. It was not immediately clear if the Congress leader was expected to be present in person or could appear through his lawyer.
Allegations against Gandhi
According to the complaint, Rahul Gandhi claimed in his speech that V. D. Savarkar had written in a book that he and his friends once beat up a Muslim man and that Savarkar felt happy about it. Satyaki Savarkar claimed that no such incident had ever taken place and that V. D. Savarkar never wrote any such thing anywhere.
He filed a complaint under Indian Penal Code sections 499 and 500 (defamation), following which the court asked the Vishrambaug police station to verify the proof submitted by Satyaki Savarkar and submit a report.
According to advocate Kolhatkar, the police stated in their report, submitted on Monday, that V. D. Savarkar was not found to have written about any such incident anywhere, and yet Rahul Gandhi made the claim in his speech.
