Rahul Gandhi should confirm earlier pleas were filed on his instructions: Satyaki Savarkar to court

Pune, Sep 10 (PTI) Citing a withdrawn plea by Rahul Gandhi's lawyer that mentioned a threat to his life, Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of V D Savarkar, has urged a court here to summon Gandhi and ascertain whether his earlier applications were filed on his instructions.

Satyaki has filed a defamation complaint against the Congress leader over his statements about Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the late freedom fighter and Hindutva ideologue.

Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, Satyaki's lawyer, filed an application before the special court for MPs/MLAs, requesting it to issue a strict warning that no application should be filed without the accused's (Gandhi) instructions.

On August 13, a `pursis' (statement providing case-related information) was filed by Advocate Milind Pawar who is representing Gandhi.

It said there was an apprehension about threat to Rahul Gandhi from followers of V D Savarkar. But hours later, the plea was withdrawn, with Pawar stating he had filed it without the knowledge of Gandhi or his legal team.

"Although the said pursis was promptly withdrawn.... the matter requires consideration as since the inception, the advocate of the accused filed numerous frivolous, malicious, and meaningless applications and pursis with an intention to damage and harm the image of Savarkar," Satyaki's plea read.

The court should summon Gandhi and instruct him to file an affidavit confirming that the previous applications and pursis' filed in the case were as per his instructions, it said.

"Kindly direct the accused to attest or countersign every application, pursis, and proceeding," it added.

Advocate Pawar, meanwhile, said they have filed a reply to an application by Satyaki where he prayed to the court to call a technical report from Vishrambaug police station in the city regarding the alleged speech by Gandhi in London which is available on YouTube. The case revolves around statements made in this speech.

The court has no power to seek such a police report at this state, said the reply filed by Gandhi's lawyer. Also, as this is a criminal case and not a civil suit, the court has no power to issue an injunction restraining deletion of the YouTube video (as demanded by Satyaki Savarkar), he added.

The next hearing would be conducted on September 22.

Satyaki Savarkar's defamation complaint alleges that in a speech made in London in March 2023, Rahul Gandhi claimed that V D Savarkar had written in a book that he and five to six of his friends once beat up a Muslim man, and he (Savarkar) felt happy.

No such incident ever took place, and V D Savarkar never wrote any such thing anywhere, the complaint claimed. PTI SPK KRK