The Pune Police on Monday submitted an enquiry report before a local court claiming that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi defamed Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in a 2023 speech made in London, reported PTI.

In April last year, Satyaki Savarkar, the grandson of Vinayak Savarkar, filed a defamation complaint against Gandhi, accusing him of making fictitious, false and malicious remarks about the Hindutva ideologue in his speech.

According to the complaint, Gandhi claimed that Vinayak Savarkar had written in a book that he and five to six of his friends once beat up a Muslim man and felt happy about it.

“Rahul Gandhi then went on to ask whether this was not a cowardly act,” Satyaki Savarkar was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. “But Savarkar has not written any such book as claimed by Rahul Gandhi, nor has such an incident ever happened. Hence I filed a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi in a Pune court.”

In January, the court asked the city police to investigate the allegations and submit their findings by February 23. The police, in April, raised concerns about not getting access to information regarding the link to the video of Gandhi’s speech.

The court extended the deadline to submit the report to May 27.

“Vishrambaug police submitted a report today before the court and told the court that in their probe, it has been revealed that VD Savarkar had not written about such incident in any of his books but despite that, Gandhi made that kind of remarks during his speech in London in March 2023 and defamed Savarkar,” advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, representing Satyaki Savarkar, told media persons on Monday.

Kolhatkar said the court will issue an order on May 30 regarding summoning Gandhi for appearance, according to The Indian Express.

Satyaki Savarkar has sought maximum punishment for defamation for Gandhi under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code. He has also sought compensation from the Wayanad MP.

In March 2023, Gandhi was convicted by a Surat court for defamatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The court had given Gandhi the maximum punishment of two years in the case, which led to his immediate disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP.

The Supreme Court, however, stayed the conviction in April, thereby restoring Gandhi’s Lok Sabha membership.