Court defers recording of Rahul’s plea in RSS case

Mumbai: The magistrate court in Bhiwandi on Monday deferred recording the plea of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi till March 3 in the defamation case filed against him by a Bhiwandi-based Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member for linking the organisation to the killing of Mahatma Gandhi during a poll speech in March 2014. The court postponed the recording of plea after Mr Gandhi’s lawyer told the court that they have not been provided with all the documents based on which the case had been filed.

Recording of plea is similar to the framing of charges in a criminal case where an accused informs the court if he is pleading or not pleading guilty and is ready to face the trial.

Mr Gandhi came to court with VIP security, but he was made to sit there for around 50 minutes just like any other litigant because he could not reach court on time. Mr Gandhi’s flight from Delhi was delayed due to smog, and the same was conveyed to joint civil magistrate Tushar Waje. The court had started dictating the order of another case when Mr Gandhi reached, and the magistrate said he could not stop his work midway and asked the former to wait. Then, around 25 minutes, later Mr Gandhi’s matter was heard.

While waiting for his turn in courtroom, Mr Gandhi started chatting with complainant Rajesh Kunte. When asked about conversation, Mr Kunte said Mr Gandhi was asking about his association with the RSS.

When Mr Waje took up the defamation case for hearing, Mr Gandhi’s lawyers Ashok Mundergi and Narayan Iyer moved an application seeking adjournment of hearing saying that they had not received an entire copy of the documents based on which case has been filed. Mr Iyer said they have been provided with copies of cuttings of news reports but since the case is based on these reports, the defence needs entire the page of newspapers instead of snippets.

The court directed complainant to provide the required documents to Mr Gandhi’s lawyers.

Interestingly, the hearing of defamation case related to Gandhiji’s assassination was held on his 69th death anniversary and after coming out of court, Mr Gandhi said,  “I remember Gandhiji today (being his death anniversary). My fight is against an ideology, the same ideology that killed Gandhiji.” Without naming anybody, the Congress scion added that the same ideology is removing Gandhiji from Khadi Gram Udyog’s diary. He also said, “Gandhiji will stay in the heart of India forever.”