Latest news with #Satyaki
Time of India
an hour ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Plea to cancel Rahul Gandhi's bail bond rejected
1 2 3 Pune: The court of special magistrate Amol Shinde rejected the plea of Satyaki Savarkar, great-grandnephew of Hindu ideologue Veer Damodar Savarkar, to cancel the bail bond of Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. The court in its order of May 28 observed that Gandhi was granted permanent exemption from appearing before the court after he was released on bail, and enough grounds were not cited to cancel his bail bond. The court rejected Satyaki's plea because the grounds mentioned by him to cancel Gandhi's bail bond were not justified. The court relied on the Orissa High Court order in the case of Chinmaya Sahu vs State of Orissa, which stated that bail granted under the provisions of Section 436 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) could be cancelled by invoking Section 439 (2) of the CrPC. The court order stated that if Satyaki wanted to pray for cancelling the bail bond of Gandhi, he could file a plea under Section 439 (2) of the CrPC. Gandhi's lawyer, Milind Pawar, submitted that the court did not impose any conditions on his client at the time of granting him bail, so there was no question of cancelling his bail bond. The lawyer said his client was facing a charge of criminal defamation under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code, which was a bailable offence. Satyaki filed the criminal defamation case over alleged objectionable remarks made by the Congress leader against Savarkar in a March 2023 speech in London.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Defamation case: Pune court rejects Rahul's plea seeking maternal family tree of Savarkar's kin
A Pune court rejected an application filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking the maternal family tree of Satyaki Savarkar, the grandnephew of V D Savarkar. Satyaki Savarkar had filed a defamation complaint against Rahul for his alleged objectionable remarks against the Hindutva ideologue during a speech in London in March 2023. Satyaki's mother Himani Ashok Savarkar is the daughter of Gopal Godse, the younger brother of Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi's assassin. Rejecting Rahul's plea, special judge Amol Shinde of the MP/MLA court on May 28 observed that 'this case is related only to alleged defamatory speech made by the accused in London against VD Savarkar.' The order was uploaded on the court's website Saturday. According to Satyaki, Rahul had claimed in his speech that Savarkar had written a book in which Savarkar mentioned that he (Savarkar) and five to six of his friends were beating up a Muslim person, and they were 'delighted' about it. Satyaki said VD Savarkar had not written any such book, nor had such an incident ever happened. In his petition, Satyaki had stated that Gandhi had intentionally made false, malicious and wild allegations against Savarkar. Satyaki had submitted a few news reports as well as a YouTube link of a video of Gandhi's speech in London as evidence. Rahul's lawyer Milind Pawar had filed an application before the court seeking an English translation of the book 'Mazi Janmathep' authored by V D Savarkar, another book 'Hindutva' also authored by him, and the family tree of Satyaki Savarkar. Satyaki's lawyer Sangram Kolhatkar provided the same to advocate Pawar in the court. But, on March 28, advocate Pawar filed an application on behalf of Rahul saying, 'The complainant (Satyaki) has deliberately, systematically, very brilliantly avoided, and suppressed to disclose the family tree from his maternal side in the present complaint. Therefore this is one of the most important issues and circumstances in this case to decide on merits and that should be ascertained before plea and commencement of this trial… Therefore directions be issued to the complainant to file a family tree on the maternal side and explanation be sought on the suppression.' Advocate Kolhatkar called the application 'baseless, false and filed with malafide intent.' Rejecting the plea, the court, its 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. 'Therefore, this court does not find any merit in the application of the accused (Rahul Gandhi). There is also no need to send the matter for further investigation. Hence the application sans merits and the same is liable to be rejected,' the court order stated. Meanwhile, Satyaki has filed an application requesting the court to direct Rahul Gandhi to produce the book that he quoted while making the alleged defamatory statement during his speech in London. Advocate Pawar is likely to reply to this application. The next hearing on this matter is scheduled on June 12.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Defamation case: Complainant concealed family ties with Godse, Rahul Gandhi tells Pune court
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has filed an application before the special MP/MLA Court in Pune claiming that the complainant in the Vinayak Savarkar defamation case, Satyaki Savarkar, deliberately concealed material facts regarding his maternal lineage — specifically, that he was the grandson of Gopal Vinayak Godse, younger brother of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse. Gandhi's defence counsel, advocate Milind Pawar, filed an application requesting the court to verify the maternal ancestry of Satyaki. Pawar told the court that while Satyaki had documented his paternal connection to VD Savarkar, he had not disclosed his maternal lineage. According to the defence, Satyaki's mother, the late Himani Ashok Savarkar, belonged to the Godse family. Her father was Gopal Vinayak Godse, brother of Nathuram Godse. 'This would mean Nathuram Godse is the complainant's maternal granduncle,' Pawar told the court. If Satyaki Savarkar does not voluntarily submit details on his maternal lineage, Pawar has requested that Vishrambaug police station be directed to investigate and provide a report verifying Himani Savarkar's family background. Vinayak Savarkar was known for his 'anti-Muslim' writings ever since he was in jail, Gandhi said in the application. Referring to various historians, the application states, 'Savarkar promoted anti-Muslim form of Hindu nationalism and saw Muslims in the Indian police and military to be 'potential traitors'.' The demand from Gandhi's counsel came during the hearing on the defamation plea filed by Satyaki, who claims that the Congress leader falsely attributed a violent anecdote to VD Savarkar. The complaint stems from Gandhi's London address, where he reportedly said that VD Savarkar wrote about an incident in which he and a group of friends assaulted a Muslim man and felt elated afterwards. Satyaki urged the court to direct Gandhi to submit a copy of the book which he cited during the controversial speech, asserting that no such passage exists in Savarkar's writings. Satyaki's legal counsel, advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, noted that despite the case being scheduled for plea recording since January 10, 2025, the accused was yet to comply, which was causing delays. 'We are now requesting the court to instruct the accused to submit the exact text or book he referred to during his remarks. This is vital for ensuring a just legal process,' advocate Kolhatkar said.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Rahul Gandhi files criminal defamation case against Satyaki Savarkar
Pune: Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday filed a criminal defamation case through his lawyer in a Pune special magistrate court against Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of Hindu ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Gandhi accused Satyaki of allegedly providing false information to the court in a May 9 application to get the Congress leader's bail bond cancelled on the grounds of breach of its condition. Gandhi, in his petition filed through lawyer Milind Pawar, said that the court — while granting bail to him on Jan 10 in a defamation case filed by Satyaki — did not impose any conditions. So, the question of breaching conditions does not arise because the case filed by Satyaki under the provisions of section 500 of the Indian Penal Code is bailable. On May 9, Satyaki had filed a plea to cancel the bail bond and take coercive action against Gandhi for breaching its condition. This, according to the Congress leader's petition, was defamatory, false, and baseless, misleading the court. Gandhi's petition states that Satyaki committed an offence of defamation under the provisions of IPC sections 499 and 500, perjury (false statement) under sections 191 (false evidence) and 192 (fabricating false evidence), and of contempt by misleading the court. Pawar has prayed before the court to take cognisance of his client's petition and issue process (summons) against Satyaki. Satyaki's lawyer, Sangram Kolhatkar, told TOI, "My client has filed a plea to reject Gandhi's plea because the petition filed by him is frivolous and filed with an intention to disrupt the court proceedings by not recording his plea to commence the trial." The court has deferred the hearing till June 12.
Time of India
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Plea to seize bail bond of Rahul Gandhi in defamation case
Pune: An application to seize the bail bond of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi , in the criminal defamation case was filed by Satyaki Savarkar , the grandnephew of Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar , before a special magisterial court on Friday for not recording his plea to commence the court directed Gandhi's lawyer, Milind Pawar, to file a written statement on Satyaki's plea by May plea, filed through his lawyer Sangram Kolhatkar, stated that Gandhi wilfully abstained from recording the plea on multiple occasions since he was released on bail on January 10. It mentioned that the court considered Gandhi's status as a Member of Parliament and Leader of Opposition, and permitted him to be present before the court through video conferencing and allowed him to be represented by his plea also stated that the court imposed the condition that Gandhi would not seek adjournment and his lawyer would be present on every date of the trial. Satyaki's plea claimed that Gandhi deliberately avoided recording his plea and requested for coercive action against him to secure his presence for the magisterial court on January 10 granted bail to Gandhi in the case filed by Satyaki over alleged objectionable remarks made by the Congress leader against the Hindutva ideologue in his March 2023 speech in London.
