Supreme Court cancels defamation case against Rahul Gandhi over Savarkar remarks

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi got major relief from the Supreme Court on Friday after it cancelled a defamation complaint against him. The case pertained to a criminal defamation suit over a 2022 speech by Gandhi, mentioning Savarkar, during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

The court noted that the Uttar Pradesh government had not granted the sanction required under law to prosecute him in the case.

In a complaint in 2023, Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar, had alleged that Rahul Gandhi made defamatory remarks against V D Savarkar during a speech in London on March 5, 2023. Along with the complaint, Satyaki had submitted before the court some news reports, a YouTube link showing video of Rahul’s speech in London, and a CD containing the said video, as evidence. But when the CD was played during Satyaki’s chief examination in November last year, it was found to be blank.

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