Rahul Gandhi cites threat to life in Savarkar defamation case

Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi told a Pune court on Wednesday that he faces a threat to his life due to his recent political battles and the lineage of complainant Satyaki Savarkar in the defamation case filed against him.

Rahul Gandhi urged the special MP/MLA court, which is hearing the defamation matter, to take judicial notice of what he described as “grave apprehensions” regarding his safety and the fairness of proceedings.

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“Given the documented history of violent and anti-constitutional tendencies linked to the complainant’s (Satyaki Savarkar’s) lineage, there exists a clear, reasonable, and substantial apprehension that Rahul Gandhi may face harm, wrongful implication, or other forms of targeting,” his counsel submitted before the court.

“In view of the grave history associated with such lineage, the defence harbours a genuine and reasonable apprehension that history must not be permitted to repeat itself,” the submission added.

However, Satyaki Savarkar — the grandnephew of the late Vinayak Damodar Savarkar — dismissed the claims, calling them “frivolous” and aimed at delaying the trial. “The facts mentioned in Rahul Gandhi’s application have nothing to do with the present case,” he told reporters in Pune on Wednesday.

It may be recalled that Satyaki Savarkar filed the complaint against Rahul Gandhi over remarks allegedly made in a speech in London in March 2023, in which Gandhi claimed that V D Savarkar had written in a book about once beating up a Muslim man with friends and feeling happy about it.

Satyaki Savarkar has denied any such incident or writing by V D Savarkar, stating that it is a fabrication. He has sought Gandhi’s conviction under Section 500 of the IPC and compensation under Section 357 of the CrPC.

Rahul Gandhi is currently out on bail in the case.