A special court in Pune on Friday granted bail to Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case filed against him by Satyaki Savarkar, the grand-nephew of Hindutva icon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. .The MP/MLA court presided by Judge Amol Shinde allowed Gandhi's bail plea on a surety bond of ₹25,000 after he appeared for hearing via video conferencing. Gandhi's counsel Milind Pawar said.Senior Congress leader Mohan Joshi stood as surety for Gandhi according to Pawar. The Court also granted permanent exemption to Gandhi from appearing in future hearings, Pawar added..The defamation case stems from a comment Gandhi made during a speech in London in March 2023. In his statement, Gandhi allegedly referred to Savarkar’s writings about an incident where he and others had assaulted a Muslim man, a situation Savarkar reportedly found “pleasurable.”Satyaki Savarkar, a relative of the ideologue, filed the defamation complaint, refuting Gandhi’s claim and asserting that no such incident is mentioned in Savarkar’s works. Savarkar has sought the maximum penalty for Gandhi under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal defamation, along with the highest compensation under Section 357 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
