Savarkar defamation case: Rahul Gandhi pleads not guilty before Pune court
Rahul Gandhi's counsel Milind Pawar appeared before the court on his behalf to record his plea in the defamation case filed by Satyaki Savarkar, the grandnephew of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar.
Special judge Amol Shinde of the MP/MLA court read out the charges against Gandhi. Then, through his lawyer, Rahul submitted that he does not plead guilty in this case.
Advocate Pawar filed an application before the MP/MLA court seeking that the complainant (Satyaki) clarify under which provision of law the latter submitted 'two different and mutually contradictory family trees'.
Pawar requested the court to direct the complainant to clarify the reason for the omission of the name of his mother Himani in the second family tree placed on record.
Satyaki's lawyer Sangram Kolhatkar argued that the two family trees are not different or contradictory. The court asked Kolhatkar to file a say on the clarification sought by Rahul Gandhi's counsel, during the next hearing on July 29.
Earlier, on March 28, advocate Pawar had filed an application on behalf of Rahul, requesting the court to direct the complainant to file a family tree on his maternal side.
Pawar claimed that the complainant has 'deliberately, systematically, very brilliantly avoided, and suppressed to disclose the family tree from his maternal side in the present complaint.'
The complainant's mother Himani Ashok Savarkar is a daughter of Gopal Godse, younger brother of Nathuram Godse, who had killed Mahatma Gandhi. But, on May 28, the court had rejected Rahul's application and observed that 'this case is related only to alleged defamatory speech made by the accused in London against VD Savarkar.' The court order stated that Satyaki is the grandson of one of the brothers of late V D Savarkar and the said case is not related to the family tree of his mother Himani Savarkar.
Satyaki Savarkar had filed the defamation complaint against Rahul for his alleged objectionable remarks against V D Savarkar during a speech the Congress leader made in London on March 5, 2023.
According to Satyaki, Gandhi had said in his speech in London that Savarkar had written a book in which it is stated that Savarkar and five to six of his friends beat up a Muslim and were 'delighted' about it.
Satyaki said V D Savarkar had not written any such book as Gandhi had claimed, nor has such an incident ever take place. In his petition, Satyaki stated, 'He (Gandhi) has intentionally made false, malicious and wild allegations against Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, fully knowing the said allegations to be untrue, with the specific objective of harming the reputation and to defame the surname Savarkar.'
In his criminal defamation application, Satyaki demanded maximum punishment for Rahul Gandhi under section 500 (Punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.
On May 27, 2024, the inquiry report submitted by Pune City police before the magistrate court in this case concluded that Rahul Gandhi defamed V D Savarkar during his speech at the London event, by making statements that were not written by Savarkar in any of his books.
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