Congress leader and leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has pleaded not guilty in the Pune court regarding his comments made on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Rahul’s lawyer Milind Pawar has filed the plea in the Pune court on his behalf as he was not present during the court proceedings. Judicial Magistrate (First Class) and Special Judge (MP/MLA court) Amol Sriram Shinde read out the charge against Rahul filed by Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of VD Savarkar. Through his counsel, the Congress leader pleaded not guilty to the charge.
What did Satyaki Savarkar’s lawyer said?
Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, who is representing Satyaki Savarkar, said that the phase of recording of plea of the accused is over. So, Sangram said that the trial in this case will commence now. The matter for the next hearing has been kept by the court on July 24.
What did Satyaki Savarkar said about Rahul Gandhi?
In his complaint, Satyaki said that Rahul falsely accused Savarkar of writing a book in which he described that he and his friends enjoyed beating a Muslim man. Savarkar’s nephew said that his grandfather never mentioned such incident in any book and it never happened.
Previous cases against Rahul Gandhi for comments against Savarkar
Apart from Satyaki, advocate Nripendra Pandey had also filed a complaint against Rahul for his remarks against Savarkar. The advocate filed that case under various penal provisions for alleged offences like ‘promoting enmity between classes’ and ‘public mischief. A bench, comprising justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan, asked Rahul to not make such statements in the future. The bench said that the court might take suo motu cognisance of such remarks. Suo moto cognizance is a legal term that refers to a situation where a court or other authority takes action on its own initiative. They can do this without any formal request or prompting from a party involved.
