Rahul Gandhi cites life threat over ‘vote theft’ slogan in Pune court defamation case

Mumbai : Congress Lok Sabha MP and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on
Wednesday told a Pune court that he was unable to attend proceedings due to threats to his life, citing his exposure of vote theft and his slogan, “Vote chor sarkar”. A criminal defamation case has been filed against the Congress leader in Pune’s special court for
his remarks against Veer Savarkar. The case was lodged by Satyaki Savarkar over Gandhi’s speech in London in March 2023, in which he claimed that Savarkar had said
an assault on a Muslim man was “found or pleasurable”. Satyaki Savarkar challenged this statement, asserting that Savarkar had not written any such thing, and called Gandhi’s speech false, misleading, and defamatory. He has sought Gandhi’s conviction
under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code and compensation under Section 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Gandhi’s lawyer, Milind Pawar, highlighted in court that the Congress leader’s safety was under threat, especially after his allegations of electoral
malpractice. In his application, it was also stated that given the documented history of violent and anticonstitutional tendencies linked to the complainant’s lineage, there was “a clear, reasonable appreciation that Rahul Gandhi may face harm, wrongful implication, or other forms of targeting, so history should not repeat itself.” Gandhi also sought preventive protection from the state. “The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi was not an act of impulse; rather, it was a calculated outcome of conspiracy rooted in a specific ideology committing deliberate violence against an unarmed person,” the application stated. It further claimed that Gandhi’s slogan on August 11, “Vote chor
sarkar” in Parliament, along with the submission of documents alleging electoral irregularities, had triggered hostility from political opponents. Gandhi also cited public threats, including one from Union Minister Ranveer Singh Bittu, who purportedly called him the “number one terrorist of the country”, and another from Tarvindar Singh Marwa, who allegedly said Gandhi “must behave well or he may face the same fate as his grandmother, Indira Gandhi”. He further referred to his speech in Parliament on the definition of “Hindu”, which he claimed had not been received well by the ruling
party. Rahul Gandhi added that while he had full faith in the independence of the judiciary, “it is imperative that the court be fully conscious of the forces’ influence and the extraordinary circumstances around him as the matter proceeds”. The court is scheduled to hear the matter on 11 September.

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