Rahul Gandhi accused of making false statements in Savarkar defamation proceedings

The Hindu

2 days ago

A perjury application has been filed in the Special MP/MLA Court in Pune against Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, accusing him of misleading the court in a defamation case over his remarks on Vinayak Damodar 'Veer' Savarkar, made in London.
The application has been filed by Satyaki Savarkar, the grandnephew of Veer Savarkar, through advocate Sangram Kolhatkar. It alleges that Mr. Gandhi falsely claimed in a 15-page pursis, or statement to the court, on July 29 that he had not received the defamatory video which forms the crux of the complaint. The plea states that Mr. Gandhi's advocate had acknowledged receipt of the documents, including a CD containing the speech, on May 9.
Pen drives and CDs
According to the application, Mr. Gandhi also admitted in his reply to having received a pen drive containing the video uploaded on YouTube but claimed that it was non-functional. A new pen drive was later provided and operated in court in the presence of his advocate. The application says that Mr. Gandhi still alleged non-receipt and filed a 'false pursis.'
It further points to another application filed by Mr. Gandhi's advocate on May 28, admitting receipt of the pen drive but refusing to operate it, citing possible malware. The pen drive is currently in Court custody. The plea terms these actions a 'deliberate and malicious attempt to deceive, mislead, and make false statements before the court', arguing that such conduct from a constitutional office-holder is 'serious and unbecoming'.
Unnecessary delays
Speaking to The Hindu, the advocate Mr. Kolhatkar said, 'Multiple times we have handed him over the speech document, we even provided him the link, transcript of the entire speech that was around 17 minutes long. We have also submitted news reports of the speech. We believe they must have misplaced them again and again because they keep saying they cannot access the CD, then when we gave them the file in a new pen drive, they said it was corrupt, then another fresh pen drive was provided to them and this time they said the pen drive might contain malware and may damage their computer system.'
He added, 'For so long, we have ignored each and every criticism but now enough is enough. We are compelled to file the perjury because we are fed up with their excuses. We want a fair trial. The case is going on since 2023 and the trial has not even started. So much time and money has been wasted, including the court's time.'
Milind Dattatraya Pawar, the advocate representing Rahul Gandhi, countered, 'None of the files in the form of CD and pen drives provided by Satyaki Savarkar works. They provided us the copy of the London speech in a CD which has never worked. The pen drives too do not work. We will file our reply on September 10.'
The court is scheduled to hear the matter on September 10, 2025.