Pune Court summons Rahul Gandhi in defamation case over remarks on VD Savarkar
The verdict by a court in the city of Pune has asked Indian Congress president Rahul Gandhi to appear before the court on August 19 in connection with a defamation case that has been filed against him for alleged defamatory statements on a Hindu activist V D Savarkar during the Congress party’s recent visit to the United Kingdom.
This complaint was filed by Satyaki Savarkar, who is the grandson of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, more famously known by that name, Veer Savarkar.
The judicial magistrate at Pune has been identified as Akshi Jain who passed the order on May 30 in connection with the issuing of a process under Section 204 of the CrPC.
Earlier, the judge had formally granted the order to the Pune police to investigate the defamation complaint under Section 202, Cr.P.C.
The police who had conducted the inquiry, submitted their report with the court and this was done on May 27. In proceeding with this, the judicial magistrate gave process in the complaint and against Gandhi.
The defamation complaint of which has filed stating that Gandhi had been ‘repeatedly defaming Savarkar’ on different occasions for several years.
One such instance emerged on March 5, 2023 when Gandhi was giving a special speech to the members of the Overseas Congress in United Kingdom. The complainant averred that Gandhi injured the character of Savarkar intentionally and recklessly knowing well that the contents of theivil statement were false.
Gandhi, according to the complaint, deliberately used the words, with intention of causing mental torture to him and his entire family.
The petition presented before a chief judicial magistrate in Pune at the instance of the government further stated that while the actual speech containing ‘defamatory imputations’ was made by Gandhi in England, the heat was felt in Pune as the speech was published and circulated all over India.
