New Delhi: The complainant of the court case filed against Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for allegedly “defaming” Hindutva icon V.D. Savarkar has objected to the former’s request to bring historical facts and detailed evidence to back up his statements.
Satyaki Ashok Savarkar, a relative of V.D. Savarkar and the complainant in the case has objected to Gandhi’s plea to convert the nature of the trial in the case from a summary trial to a summons trial, reported Bar and Bench.
“The accused is again deliberately trying to divert the matter by raising irrelevant arguments about Veer Savarkar’s contributions during the Indian freedom struggle. The accused has raised issues regarding certain historical facts, which are irrelevant to the core subject matter of this case,” the complainant has said in his affidavit filed in the court.
The case pertains to a speech delivered by Gandhi in London in March 2023 in which he had reportedly referred to Savarkar’s writings about an incident where Savarkar, along with others, allegedly assaulted a Muslim man –a situation Savarkar supposedly found “pleasurable.”
Satyaki Savarkar had filed the defamation case against Gandhi in 2023, claiming that no such incident about Savarkar is mentioned in his works.
“The accused is again deliberately trying to divert the matter by raising irrelevant arguments about Veer Savarkar’s contributions during the Indian freedom struggle. The accused has raised issues regarding certain historical facts, which are irrelevant to the core subject matter of this case,” the reply of Satyaki Savarkar states.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
