Mumbai: A Bhiwandi magistrate court will frame charges against Congress president Rahul Gandhi on June 12 in a defamation case against him.
The case is based on a complaint by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, Rajesh Kunte, who accused Mr Gandhi of making a statement on March 6, 2014, according to which the RSS was behind the January 1948 assassination of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
According to the complaint, Mr Gandhi had said, ‘RSS people killed Gandhiji and today their people (BJP) talk of him... They opposed Sardar Patel and Gandhiji.” Aggrieved by this statement, Mr Kunte registered a defamation case under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Mr Gandhi. The Congress leader, through his lawyer Narayan Iyer, had earlier moved an application stating that the court should see all evidence, books and references pertaining to the Gandhi assassination during the trial. On June 12, the court will give its order on the application.
“On April 23, we filed an application requesting the court to convert the defamation case filed against him (Mr Gandhi) by a local RSS worker from a summery case to summons case, so that he can get an opportunity to adduce evidence in detail.” said Mr Iyer
“Today, we argued before the court that in a summary trial there are chances to change judges and to avoid inconvenience we wanted the court to conduct a summons case. We also wanted to put all articles and books’ references to Gandhi’s assassination. We also showed many high court directions pertaining to historical and sensitive cases,” said Iyer.
Mr Kunte’s lawyer, Nandu Phadke, has opposed Mr Gandhi’s argument and said that it is not relevant to examine old books and article references; he also opposed the examination of writers of such books.
“The point raised by Mr Gandhi pertaining to change of judges is not in the interest of justice and, to avoid repetition of evidence and witnesses, we support a summons trial,” said Mr Phadke. Mr Iyer orally informed the court that on June 12 Mr Gandhi would personally appear before the court and for the framing of charges stage of the trial.
