Savarkar Defamation Case: Empty CD and Missing Evidence in Rahul Gandhi's Court Proceedings

Pune:

In a Pune court, Satyaki Savarkar's request to display a YouTube video containing Rahul Gandhi's allegedly defamatory 2023 speech regarding freedom-fighter and Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar was denied. Subsequently, the special court handling cases against MPs and MLAs also rejected Satyaki's application to play what he claimed was an additional CD provided to the court. The judge determined no such additional CD was officially on record.

During Satyaki's examination-in-chief on November 14, when the complainant's lawyer initially examines a witness, the CD supposedly containing video evidence of Gandhi's alleged defamatory London speech from 2023 failed to play as it contained no data.

Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, representing Satyaki Savarkar, requested permission to play the original YouTube channel link instead. However, Gandhi's attorney Advocate Milind Pawar opposed this request.

In its ruling, the court noted that while the complainant had submitted a certificate in accordance with Section 65-B of the Indian Evidence Act regarding the CD, this same certificate could not be applied to the YouTube URL.

Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Amol Shinde determined that the URL or web link lacked the supporting certificate required under section 65-B, making it inadmissible as evidence.

On November 27, Satyaki Savarkar petitioned the court to examine what he described as an additional CD previously submitted, but the court stated no such CD was officially recorded.

Advocate Kolhatkar indicated he has requested a judicial inquiry into both the 'blank CD' and the allegedly missing additional CD.

"When we registered the case in 2023, we submitted the original CD containing the alleged video alongside the YouTube channel URL. The previous judge who initially heard the case confirmed the video on the CD was functioning properly. Now, the CD appears to contain no data," he explained.

Satyaki Savarkar alleges that Rahul Gandhi, currently serving as Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, claimed during his London speech that V D Savarkar had written in a book about himself and five to six friends beating a Muslim man, an act which purportedly made Savarkar happy.

The complaint asserts that no such incident ever occurred, and V D Savarkar never documented any such event in his writings.