A Pune court on Tuesday ordered Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to appear before it in person on December 2 in an ongoing defamation case against him for allegedly defaming late right-wing leader Vinayak Savarkar. The complaint has been filed by Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of VD Savarkar.
The special court in Pune has sought Gandhi's physical presence in next hearing of the defamation complaint filed against him for allegedly defaming late right-wing leader Vinayak Savarkar by making objectionable comments against him in a speech he delivered in the United Kingdom, the LiveLaw reported.
In October, the special MP/MLA court Judge Amol Shinde issued summons to Rahul Gandhi to appear before the court personally so as to answer the charges against him.
According to the report, the counsel appearing for Savarkar informed the Pune court that Gandhi's office had received the summons, and yet the Congress leader chose not to appear before the court.
Gandhi's counsel Milind Pawar, informed the special court that his client is a Member of Parliament (MP) from Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh and also a Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha. He further said that Gandhi has been busy travelling across the country as several States have been undergoing elections in the past two month and being an LoP and leader of a national party, Gandhi has been busy travelling to various parts of the country for election campaigns, the report said.
Rahu Gandhi's counsel however informed the court that he will appear personally on the next date of hearing.
Taking note of the submissions, the judge adjourned the matter till December 2. However, the court directed Gandhi appear before it personally on next hearing.
The defamation complainant alleges that Gandhi made intentionally wild allegations against Savarkar, knowing them to be untrue, with the intention of harming Savarkar's reputation and causing mental agaony to family. The complaint has cited news reports and a YouTube link to a video of Gandhi's speech in London as evidence.
The complaint states that Gandhi falsely accused Savarkar of writing a book in which he described beating up a Muslim person, which Savarkar never wrote and such an incident never happened, the report said.