Savarkar defamation case: Rahul Gandhi pleads not guilty

Pune: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday pleaded not guilty in a defamation case pertaining to his comments on Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar in a Pune court, PTI reported.

Judicial Magistrate (First Class) and Special Judge (MP/MLA court) Amol Sriram Shinde read out the charge, levelled by Satyaki Savarkar, a grandnephew of V D Savarkar, to which Gandhi pleaded not guilty through his lawyer Milind Pawar.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha was not present in the court, and his lawyer, Pawar, pleaded not guilty on his behalf before the court.

Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, who is representing Satyaki Savarkar, said since the phase of recording the plea of the accused is over, the trial in the case will proceed now.

The court kept the matter for the next hearing on July 24.

Earlier, the court of judge Amol Shinde said it could not direct Rahul Gandhi to produce ‘the incriminating documents’ prematurely.

The court made the opinion while rejecting the petition filed by the grandnephew of Savarkar in the defamation case, The Wire reported.

The petitioner sought access to the `book’ that Rahul Gandhi cited while allegedly making defamatory remarks against Savarkar.

The court, in its order, said that the accused might produce relevant documents while presenting defence evidence, but compelling the accused to produce evidence prematurely would ‘amount to a violation of his fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 20(3) of the Constitution of India, which protects against self-incrimination.’

Satyaki Savarkar, earlier in a plea, claimed that the book that Gandhi referred to did not exist and sought the court to direct him to produce if the book existed.

Responding to it, the court said: ‘As per Article 20(3)…’No person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. Therefore, this Court is of the opinion that an order cannot be passed directing the accused to file the incriminating documents.’