LUCKNOW: On Friday, a local court issued a summons to the Congress MP from Rae Bareli and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, directing him to appear for trial on January 10, 2025.He is accused of promoting enmity and disturbing public harmony through a controversial statement and pamphlets distributed to the press regarding Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The court determined that there is a prima facie case against him under Sections 153(a) and 505 of the Indian Penal Code (IPCAdditional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Alok Verma passed the order on the criminal complaint filed by local lawyer Nripendra Pandey.Earlier, ACJM had rejected the complaint on June 14, 2023 but the revisional court on October 3, 2024 set aside the rejection order and remanded the matter to the ACJM for passing fresh order on the basis of the material which had come on record in the complaint and the statement of witnesses.In the inquiry, the police had confirmed that Gandhi had made the objectionable statement against Savarkar in Maharashtra and it was aired through television and other communication medium.In the complaint, it has been said that in a press conference held on November 17, 2022, during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Akola, Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi had made serious remarks against Savarkar amounting to spreading communal unrest.The complainant, Nripendra Pandey, alleged that Gandhi called Savarkar “a servant of the British who received a pension from them,” distributing pre-print pamphlets to media personnel to tarnish Savarkar’s image deliberately.Passing the summoning order, the court observed, “the material presented demonstrates that Gandhi’s remarks, broadcast nationwide via TV and social media, were intended to spread hatred and enmity, undermining the nation’s unity”.
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