A special court in Pune on Friday summoned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to appear before it on October 23 in connection with a criminal defamation case against him filed by Satyaki Savarkar, the grandnephew of Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
Satyaki Savarkar filed the case against Gandhi in a Pune court last year. Last month, it was transferred to the special court designated for MPs and MLAs from the Judicial Magistrate First Class, FMFC, court.
Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, appearing for Satyaki Savarkar, said the special court, presided over by Joint Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate First Class Amol Shinde, observed that Gandhi’s presence was imperative to bringing charges against him under Section 500 (defamation) of the IPC.
In his complaint, Satyaki Savarkar mentioned that in a speech in London in March 2023, Gandhi had said V D Savarkar related an incident in which he and some friends had attacked a Muslim and expressed happiness over the act.
The grandson of VD Savarkar strongly denied this claim and said there was no such incident that his granduncle ever wrote relating to such an incident. He termed Gandhi’s remarks as “fictitious, false, and malicious.”
The court ordered a police investigation and filed a report after the complaint. The probe conducted by the Vishrambaug police station found prima facie evidence to support the allegations.
