Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury plead ‘not guilty’, secure bail in criminal defamation case filed by RSS worker

A Mumbai court has granted bail to the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury in a criminal defamation case filed by an RSS worker, Advocate Dhrutiman Joshi.The Court of Metropolitan Magistrate in Sewri, Mumbai had required the personal presence of the two politicians in today’s hearing. The two leaders were present in the Court amid tight security and pleaded not guilty..Both the leaders were then granted bail against a bond of Rs. 15,000. Senior Congress leader and ex-Member of parliament Eknath Gaikwad stood as surety for Gandhi..The complaint under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code was filed against the two politicians for making allegations against the RSS and insinuating its involvement in the murder of veteran journalist Gauri Lankesh. The statements made by these politicians in the press after Lankesh’s assassination form the basis of this criminal defamation complaint..It is stated in Joshi’s complaint that Rahul Gandhi made “defamatory remarks” against the RSS and these remarks also represent the sentiments of the Indian National Congress. The specific statement attributed to Gandhi in the complaint is the one which he allegedly made outside the Parliament where he reportedly said,.“Anybody who speaks against the ideology of the BJP, against the ideology of the RSS is pressured, beaten, attacked and even killed”.Yechury features in this complaint for having allegedly said that the “RSS ideology and RSS men killed Gauri Lankesh”. This statement too is said to be representative of the thoughts of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) of which Yechury is the General Secretary..The complaint says that the remarks made by Gandhi and Yechury not only represent the thoughts and beliefs of their respective political parties but also tarnish the image of the RSS. The complaint says that in his capacity as a grass-root worker of the RSS, he felt defamed and humiliated on hearing the “defamatory” statements..“The statements made by the Accused and the respective political parties are in utmost sense defamatory and belittle the RSS in the eyes of common public..The statements made by the above Accused so as to say Mr. Rahul R. Gandhi, the Indian National Congress, Sitaram Yechury and the Communist party of India (M) and views expressed by them in public without any proof or official statement by the investigating authorities are defamatory and detrimental to the image of the RSS. These are mere political allegation without thinking and to defame the present complainant’s organization and the present complainant himself.”.Joshi further alleges that these statements are made by the accused political leaders merely to rake negative sentiments against the RSS merely for settling political scores and are without any basis..The Court will hear the matter next in September 2019..Advocates Sudeep Pasbola, Kushal Mor, and Tarannum Cheema appeared for Rahul Gandhi. Advocate Chandrakant S Bojgar represented Sitaram Yechury..Gauri Lankesh was a senior journalist who was shot dead outside her residence in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017, by unidentified assailants. Lankesh was known to be a fierce critic of the right-wing Hindu extremism and wrote on the subject often. Lankesh is one of the four rationalists whose murders seemingly have a common link. The other murders in the link are those of Narendra Dabholkar, MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare.