Another defamation case has been filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after his conviction in a defamation case that resulted in his disqualification from Lok Sabha. Satyaki Savarkar, the grandson of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, has filed a complaint against Rahul Gandhi over his comments on Veer Savarkar.
The defamation complaint under sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code has been filed before the court of a judicial magistrate in Pune.
“Today, I have filed a complaint for criminal defamation against Rahul Gandhi for his false allegations made in this speech against my grand father late Shri. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar,” Satyaki Savarkar said on Twitter today evening. He also posted a clip of a video of Rahul Gandhi’s speech where the Congress leader had alleged that Savarkar’s ideology included being happy after beating Muslims.
Today, I have filed a complaint for criminal defamation against Rahul Gandhi for his false allegations made in this speech against my grand father late Shri. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. @ABPNews @ZeeNews @News18India @aajtak @OpIndia_com pic.twitter.com/dUnzvWF9gP
— Satyaki Savarkar (@SatyakiSavarkar) April 12, 2023
The disqualified Lok Sabha MP had claimed that Savarkar has written in his book that once he felt very happy after he and his friends beat up a Muslim man. He had said that this is the ideology of BJP.
Rahul Gandhi had made the comments during his recent trip to the UK, which was filled with controversial remarks by him. During an interaction with the Indian diaspora organised by the UK chapter of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) on 5 March, he had claimed that BJP’s ideology is “cowardice.”
Referring to External Affairs Minister Jaishankar’s remarks on China, Rahul Gandhi had said, “If you notice the statement of the Foreign Minister, he said China is much more powerful than us. To think China is more powerful than us, how can I pick a fight with them? At the heart of the ideology is cowardice.”
He then went on to say, “Savarkar, in his book, said that he felt happy after he along with 5-6 others beat up a Muslim man. If five people beat up one person and one of them feels good, this is cowardice. If you want to fight then go fight single-handedly.”
Speaking to portal The New Indian, Satyaki Savarkar’s counsel Anirudh Ganu said that Gandhi’s claims are totally baseless and Veer Savarkar did not mention any such event anywhere. “His statement is totally false,” he said.
