Pune court issues summons to Rahul Gandhi in Savarkar defamation case

After a Nashik court recently summoned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case related to his alleged objectionable remarks against late Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a Pune court has also issued summons to him in a separate defamation case.
The court on Friday summoned Gandhi in a defamation case filed by a grandnephew of the Savarkar.
Accusing the Congress leader of making allegedly objectionable comments against Vinayak Savarkar during his visit to the United Kingdom in 2023, Satyaki Savarkar, grandson of one of Vinayak Savarkar’s brothers, had lodged a complaint with a Pune magistrate court in April 2023.
Gandhi allegedly made remarks during an event in London on March 5, 2023.
The court has asked Rahul Gandhi to appear before it on October 23.

“Rahul Gandhi, for reasons best known to him, has been repeatedly defaming and abusing Savarkar on various occasions for over many years. On one such occasion, March 5, 2023, when Rahul Gandhi was addressing a gathering of the Overseas Congress in the United Kingdom, he intentionally made wild allegations against Savarkar, knowing the same to be untrue, to harm Savarkar’s reputation,” the complaint filed by Satyaki Savarkar read.
“Rahul Gandhi has intentionally made false, malicious and wild allegations against Savarkar, fully knowing the said allegations to be untrue, with the specific objective of harming his reputation and to defame the surname ‘Savarkar’ and to hurt the feelings of the family of the late Savarkar,” it added.
Satyaki had urged the court that Rahul Gandhi be awarded maximum punishment.
On September 27, a Nashik court had summoned Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case filed against him for his alleged objectionable remarks against Vinayak Savarkar.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Nashik, Deepali Parimal Kaduskar, issued a process (summons/notice) to Gandhi on September 27, noting that the “statement made against a patriotic person prima-facie seems to be defamatory.”
 
The petitioner, who is the director of an NGO, claimed he watched a press conference addressed by Gandhi in Hingoli and also a speech made by the Congress leader in November 2022.
He alleged that Gandhi, on the two occasions, knowingly harmed Veer Savarkar’s reputation through his words and visual representations and tried to defame the latter’s image in society.