Thane: Court issues summons to Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury

THANE: The district sessions court here recently issued summons to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury in a defamation case filed by a city-based RSS activist. Vivek Champanerkar took affront to their statements linking RSS to the murder of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru in September 2017. Advocate Aditya Mishra, counsel representing the activist, said his client sought a compensation of Re1 from the political leaders.

Civil judge J S Bhatia ordered issuance of summons and notices to Gandhi and Yechury, returnable on April 30.

Champanerkar said they should be restrained from linking and blaming RSS to the crime. "Just after the death of Lankesh, the duo blamed the Sangh and asserted that anyone opposing RSS ideology would be silenced this way. It is grossly inappropriate to link RSS with the crime, hence the defamation suit is filed," Mishra told TOI. He added that the hearing is slated for April 30.

Gandhi already faces a defamation case by an RSS activist in a Bhiwandi court over the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.