Court rejects Rahul's plea seeking info on Satyaki Savarkar's maternal lineage

A Pune court on Saturday rejected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s application seeking information on the maternal lineage of Satyaki Savarkar, the grand-nephew of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar. The application was filed in connection with a defamation complaint lodged by Satyaki over Gandhi’s alleged objectionable remarks made during a speech in London.

Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Amol Shinde dismissed the plea, stating that the case pertained to the alleged defamatory comments made by Gandhi and not to the family background of the complainant’s late mother, Himani Ashok Savarkar. The judge observed that there was no relevance or merit in seeking details of her lineage and ruled out the need for any further investigation.

Himani Savarkar, Satyaki’s mother, was the daughter of Gopal Vinayak Godse, the younger brother of Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.

Representing Rahul Gandhi, counsel Milind Pawar had argued that while the complainant had disclosed his paternal ancestry in court documents, his maternal lineage had not been presented, which the defence considered essential for a fair hearing. However, the court concluded that the family tree of the complainant’s mother was not under dispute and hence, the application held no legal weight.

In a separate development, the court also turned down Satyaki Savarkar’s request to cancel Rahul Gandhi’s bail. The complainant had alleged that Gandhi was using delaying tactics and had repeatedly avoided the recording of his plea, which had been scheduled since January 10, 2025. However, the court found no evidence to support these claims and noted that Gandhi had been granted bail with a permanent exemption from personal appearance. It held that the grounds cited for cancellation were insufficient and unjustified.

The defamation case stems from Gandhi’s remarks in a 2023 speech delivered in London, where he allegedly stated that V D Savarkar had written about beating up a Muslim man with a group of friends and feeling pleased about it. Satyaki Savarkar, in his complaint, claimed that such a statement was never made by Savarkar and labelled Gandhi’s remarks as “fictitious, false, and malicious.”

With PTI inputs