Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by an RSS activist, who sought a directive to a lower court in Bhiwandi, to consider true, the transcript of the speech delivered by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during a 2014 Lok Sabha polls rally, alleging the right-wing outfit for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.
The petitioner, Rajesh Kunte had in March 2014 filed a complaint for criminal defamation against Gandhi for making baseless allegations against the RSS and defaming it, before a Magistrate court in Bhiwandi.
In July 2014, the Bhiwandi court had issued a process under criminal defamation against the Congress leader, who had subsequently moved the Bombay HC challenging the same.
Before the HC, Gandhi had submitted a transcript clarifying his stand in the matter.
In his written submissions, the Congress parliamentarian had stated that he considered BJP and RSS as one and the same and so he named the right-wing group in his speech. He had even claimed that his statement was quoted out of context.
Based on this contention, Kunte moved an application before the Magistrate seeking to consider the transcript filed by Gandhi as a true copy. He contended that since Gandhi has said that he considers both BJP and RSS as one and the same, he has indirectly accepted to have defamed the RSS by accusing it of assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.
However, the Magistrate rejected his plea in September 2018. Challenging this order, Kunte had filed a writ petition before Justice Revati Mohite-Dere's bench.
Kunte's petition was vehemently opposed by advocate Kushal Mor, appearing for Gandhi.
The bench today dismissed Kunte's plea, however, the reasons are yet to be known as the detailed copy of the order is yet to be uploaded.
