The grand-nephew of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Satyaki Savarkar, has moved an application before a sessions court, seeking to transfer the defamation case against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi to a “competent court”.

In April 2023, Satyaki filed a criminal defamation complaint against Rahul Gandhi alleging that he had made defamatory statements during his recent visit to the United Kingdom against Savarkar, reported Bar and Bench.

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“This inference is drawn on the basis of the views expressed by the JMFC court during a recent hearing. So we have requested for transfer of the said proceedings to any other competent court. Application before the sessions court has been accepted and is likely to be heard on Monday,” said Satyaki’s lawyer Sangram Kolhatkar.

In his plea, Satyaki has accused Gandhi of deliberately “making false, malicious and wild allegations against Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, fully knowing the said allegations to be untrue, with the specific objective of harming the reputation and to defame the surname Savarkar.”

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According to Satyaki, “While talking at an event in London in March earlier this year, Rahul Gandhi had said that (Vinayak Damodar) Savarkar has penned a book in which has written that he (Savarkar) and his five-six friends were beating up a Muslim and felt delighted about what was happening. Gandhi then went to ask whether this was not a cowardly act. Savarkar has not written any such book as claimed by him nor has such an incident ever happened.”

Satyaki asked for maximum punishment for the senior Congress leader under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. “The accused be summoned and tried in accordance with the law. Maximum punishment, as contemplated under Section 500 (defamation) of the IPC may kindly be imposed on the accused. Maximum compensation may kindly be imposed upon the accused according to Section 357 (order to pay compensation) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.”

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi received a stay on his conviction in Gujarat court in the Modi surname defamation case and subsequently returned as a Member of Parliament on Monday.