Court rejects Rahul Gandhi's plea for plaintiff's lineage in Savarkar case

Business Standard

2 days ago

A local Pune court on Saturday turned down Rahul Gandhi's request for information about the maternal ancestry of Satyaki Savarkar, who is the grand-nephew of VD Savarkar. This was part of a defamation case Satyaki had filed against the Congress leader over alleged derogatory comments about the Hindutva ideologue.
Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Amol Shinde rejected the plea, saying the case was focused on Gandhi's alleged defamatory speech in London, not on the family background of Satyaki Savarkar's mother, the late Himani Ashok Savarkar. She was the daughter of Gopal Vinayak Godse, who was the younger brother of Nathuram Godse — the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi's lawyer, Milind Pawar, argued that although Satyaki had given details of his father's lineage in the complaint, he had not revealed anything about his maternal side. The defence maintained that this was important for the case. However, the court disagreed.
"The case is not related to or disputed on the family tree of late Himani Ashok Savarkar. Therefore, this court does not find any merit in the application of the accused. There is also no need to send the matter for further investigation," the court noted in its ruling.
Attempt to cancel bail also rejected
In a separate development, the court also dismissed Satyaki Savarkar's application to cancel Gandhi's bail. Savarkar claimed that the case had been scheduled for Gandhi's plea to be recorded since January 10, 2025, but the Congress leader was allegedly avoiding it under various pretexts.
The judge observed that Gandhi had been granted bail along with a permanent exemption from appearing in person and found no proof that he was trying to stall the proceedings.
"It is not found that the accused is prolonging the matter. The grounds mentioned in the application are not justified to take strict action against the accused. Hence, the application is liable to be rejected," the court stated.
Case background
Satyaki Savarkar's defamation complaint stems from a speech Gandhi gave in London in March 2023. During the speech, Gandhi allegedly said that VD Savarkar had written in a book about beating up a Muslim man along with some friends and feeling pleased about it.
Satyaki refuted this, insisting that VD Savarkar had never made such claims and calling Gandhi's statements "fictitious, false, and malicious."