Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has pleaded not guilty in a Pune court in a defamation case pertaining to his comments on Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar.
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 Gandhi scion was not present in the court and his lawyer Pawar pleaded not guilty on his behalf before the court.
The judge, during the recording of the plea, asked whether the accused has received copies of the complaint and accompanying documents, to which Pawar said yes.
On the second question on whether the accused has understood the particulars of the offence levelled against him, the defence lawyer replied in the affirmative.
On the third and last question, which was ‘do you plead guilty’, Pawar replied ‘no, I do not plead guilty’ on Gandhi’s behalf.
Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, who is representing Satyaki Savarkar, said since the phase of recording of plea of the accused is over, the trial in the case will proceed now.
Satyaki Savarkar had approached a court here in April 2023 with a criminal defamation complaint against Gandhi accusing him of making false allegations against the Hindutva ideologue during his address in London in March 2023.
