Defamation case: Rahul Gandhi wants full evidence to be recorded in court

Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer wants full evidence of Mahatma Gandhi assasination to be presented in the court in the Bhiwandi court while hearing a defamation suit against him filed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

On March 6, 2014, Mr. Gandhi had made a speech in Bhiwandi holding the organization responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. He had said, “RSS people killed Gandhiji and today their people (BJP) talk of him...They opposed Sardar Patel and Gandhiji.”

Soon thereafter, Rajesh Kunte, secretary of the Bhiwandi unit of RSS registered a case against Mr Gandhi under Section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.

On Monday, advocate Narayan Iyer appearing for Mr. Gandhi made two applications—- one seeking his exemption as he is a politician and cannot be present in court on every occasion which was granted by the court.

The second application sought to convert the summary trial into a summons trial. The difference is that in a summary case only the summary of evidence is recorded by the court, while in a summons trial all the evidence is recorded in detail.

Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Iyer said, “As this case talks about a historical topic it would help the complainant and the accused if the trial is made a summons trial.” The court will hear the case on May 2.

In the last hearing, the advocate appearing for Mr. Kunte said if Mr. Gandhi is ready to accept his mistake, he was ready to withdraw the case and had no objection to his bail as he believes in “forgive and forget.”

The court had granted bail to the Congress president on November 16, 2016 on the personal surety of Shivraj Patil who submitted land documents of a place in Latur.