Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has petitioned the Bombay High Court to overturn a Thane court ruling in the RSS defamation case.
The transcript of the alleged defamatory statement has already been admitted as evidence in the pending criminal defamation lawsuit filed by RSS worker Rajesh Kunte.
Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Magistrate’s judgment violated an order of a single judge of the High Court in another case filed by Kunte in connection with the same defamation complaint.
Rajesh Kunte, a Bhiwandi-based RSS activist, had filed a defamation suit against the Gandhi scion for claiming the group responsible for Mahatma Gandhi’s killing.
According to Kunte’s suit, Gandhi stated in an election speech in Bhiwandi on March 6, 2014, that “RSS people killed Mahatma Gandhi.”
On July 8, 2015, the Congress leader appeared in court for the first time in this case. On September 8, 2016, he filed a petition in the Supreme Court, but later withdrew it, stating that he would defend the issue in Bhiwandi.
Earlier in March this year, Rahul Gandhi faced a fresh defamation case. A complaint was filed with a Haridwar court in connection with remarks made by the former MP during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Gandhi had described the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) as “21st century Kauravas” during an address in January.
The issue, one of several squabbles between the Congress party and the ruling BJP, has, however, served to unite a number of opposition groups. Many of them accuse the Centre of attempting to shift attention away from the Adani-Hindenburg dispute.
Ratnavali