VD Savarkar's Kin Files Defamation Complaint Against Rahul Gandhi In Pune Court Over His Alleged Remarks Made In London

VD Savarkar's grandnephew has filed a Criminal defamation complaint against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Pune Court for allegedly calling Savarkar a Coward, and making 'false, malicious & wild' allegations against him in an event in London thereby hurting sentiments of his family members

The complaint, filed by Satyaki Savarkar, through Advocate Sangam Kolhatkar before a Court of Judicial Magistrate of First Class, states that Gandhi has been repeatedly defaming and abusing Late VD Savarkar in various occasions for over many years and last month, while addressing a gathering of the Overseas Congress at United Kingdom, he intentionally made false, malicious and wild allegations against him with the specific objective of harming his reputation and to defame the surname Savarkar, therby hurting the feelings of his family members.

#JustIn | VD Savarkar's Grandnephew files a #Defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) in Pune Court for allegedly calling #Savarkar a 'Coward', and making 'false, malicious & wild' allegations against him thereby hurting sentiments of his family members pic.twitter.com/HuFPLtwcVR

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) April 13, 2023

The complaint further submits that Gandhi deliberately gave a statement, causing per se defamation of Late Savarkar, which also resukted in hurting the the feelings of his family members and near relatives and that the same would also spark communal tensions between two religions.

The alleged statement, as mentioned in the complaint, reads thus:

"अगर वह मुझसे कमजोर है तो मैं अपने 5-10 मित्रों के साथ उस को पीट दूंगा! मगर अगर वह RSS वालों से तगड़ा है तो मैं भाग जाऊंगा! सावरकर ने अपनी किताब में लिखा है अगर आपने पढ़ी हो उनकी किताब है उसमें लिखा है कि एक दिन उन्होंने और उनके 5-6 मित्रों ने एक मुसलमान व्यक्ति को पीटा और उस दिन उनको बहुत खुश हुआ खुशी हुई.....” [If he is weaker than me, I will beat him up with 5-10 of my friends! But if he is stronger than RSS people then I will run away! Savarkar has written in his book, if you have read his book, it is written in it that one day he and his 5-6 friends beat up a Muslim man and on that day he felt very happy….”

The complaint further states that the allegations/imputations concerning late Savarkar are totally false, baseless to the knowledge of the Complainant, as there is no evidence of such incidence, and there is nothing brought on record by the accused in support of his allegations against Veer Savarkar.

"The Accused has thus stated that Veer Savarkar was a coward and he along with his friends beat one Muslim person and felt delighted about the act done by them. It is submitted that the said statement is false to the knowledge of the Accused, who also falsely claims that such incident is mentioned in a book written by Veer Savarkar and the Accused also claims to have read such book. It is reiterated that no such incident is narrated by Veer Savarkar in any of his writings and the said defamatory statement is made by the Accused knowing the same to be false. hence, the said Defamatory statement is not made in good faith," the complaint further submits.

Further, stressing that due to such a statement, Savarkar's statement came to be lowered in the society as the same was intended to harm his reputation as well hurt the feelings of the Complainant and his family members, the complaint prays to summon and try Gandhi.

The complaint specifclally states that the Court has the jurisdiction to try the case under Section 499, 500 of IPC as the actual speech, containing defamatory imputations, thigh delivered in England, affeted the Complainant in Pune, as the same was published and circulated throughout India and world