A Pune court on Friday issued summons asking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to appear before it on October 23 in connection with a complaint against him for his remarks about Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in a 2023 speech made in London, The Indian Express reported.

In April 2023, Savarkar’s grand-nephew Satyaki Savarkar filed a defamation complaint against Gandhi, accusing him of making fictitious, false and malicious remarks about the Hindutva ideologue.

In his petition, Satyaki alleged that Gandhi had made the remarks “fully knowing the said allegations to be untrue, with the specific objective of harming the reputation and to defame the surname Savarkar…”

The case was being heard before the Judicial Magistrate First Class Akshi Jain but was transferred in September to the special court for trial of criminal cases against legislators, The Indian Express reported.

In January, the magistrate had asked Pune Police to investigate the allegations and submit their findings.

On May 27, the Pune Police submitted the inquiry report claiming that Gandhi defamed VD Savarkar in the 2023 speech.

The magistrate court had passed an order on May 30, asking Gandhi to appear before it on August 19. However, Gandhi did not receive the summons and therefore did not appear before the court, the newspaper reported.

Satyaki Savarkar has sought stringent punishment for Gandhi under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code, which prescribes a maximum two-year jail term for the criminal offence of defamation, or a fine, or both. He has also sought compensation from the Rae Bareli 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.

On Tuesday, a court in Maharashtra’s Nashik district summoned Gandhi in a separate case filed against him for his allegedly defamatory remarks about VD Savarkar.

The complainant in that case alleged that Gandhi, by his words and visual representations, had knowingly harmed the reputation of VD Savarkar at a press conference in Hingoli and during a speech in November 2022, PTI reported.

Also read: Could Rahul Gandhi’s attacks on Savarkar give the beleaguered BJP a boost in Maharashtra?