A Lucknow court on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs 200 for not appearing in a 2022 defamation case against Vinayak Damodar Savarkar on Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha.
In December 2024, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Alok Verma asked Gandhi to appear in court on Wednesday. However, Rahul Gandhi did not appear and his legal team filed an application for exemption from personal appearance.
The court imposed a fine of Rs 200 on Rahul Gandhi and said that the amount would be given to the complainant’s lawyer. The next hearing has been scheduled on 14 April.
In the application filed during the day, Gandhi’s lawyer said that there are official programs of the Leader of the Opposition which includes meetings and other scheduled programs with foreign dignitaries, due to which he could not appear in court personally.
The case was related to a complaint filed by advocate Nripendra Pandey, in which he was accused of deliberately insulting Veer Savarkar during a rally as part of the Bharat Jito Yatra in Akola district of Maharashtra on 17 November 2022.
The complainant alleged that Gandhi’s comment was part of a well -planned conspiracy to discredit Savarkar and the comments were widely broadcast in the media.
