A Pune court has summoned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to appear on December 2 in connection with a criminal defamation case filed by Satyaki Savarkar, the grand-nephew of Hindutva icon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The summons, issued by Special MP/MLA Court Judge Amol Shinde, follows a previous order for Gandhi to appear on October 23, though his counsel informed the court that the summons had not been received.
Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, representing Savarkar, requested the court to issue fresh summons, which was granted. Gandhi’s lawyer, Milind Pawar, assured the court that his client would appear on the new date.
The defamation case stems from a remark Gandhi made in March 2023 during a speech in London. Gandhi allegedly claimed that Savarkar had written about an incident in which he and his friends had beaten a Muslim man, with Savarkar purportedly taking “pleasure” in it. Satyaki Savarkar has denied this claim, stating that such a statement does not appear in his writings and that Gandhi’s remarks were defamatory.
Satyaki Savarkar has requested the maximum punishment for Gandhi under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with criminal defamation, and has also demanded the highest compensation available under Section 357 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
