Defamation case against Rahul Gandhi: Blank CD on LoP’s speech shocks court during hearing
Pune: In a dramatic twist during the hearing of the defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, a CD that had been submitted before a Pune MP/MLA Special Court as key evidence was found to be blank when played in court on Thursday.
Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, has been accused of passing derogatory comments on Hindu ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, while speaking at an event in London. A complaint has been filed against Gandhi by Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of Savarkar, in this regard.
The case is being heard by Magistrate Amol Shinde. A sealed CD reportedly containing a recording of Gandhi’s speech in London had been submitted earlier as part of the evidence, according to a report in India Today. The CD had also been played in court at cognizance stage, after which, the court issued summons to the LoP.
On Thursday, however, during Satyaki Savarkar’s examination-in-chief, the CD was opened and played, only for the court to find that it contained no data.
The unexpected development shocked the complainant’s Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, who pointed out that the CD had previously been played before the court and accepted as the basis for issuing summons to Gandhi. The lawyer requested the court to view the speech on YouTube directly.
Gandhi’s advocate Milind Dattatray Pawar objected strongly on grounds that online content was not automatically admissible and the objection was upheld on legal grounds by the magistrate.
The complainant’s lawyer later produced two other CDs, urging the Pune court to check them in open, to which, Pawar objected and the court again dismissed the plea by the advocate.
Kolhatkar requested for adjournment of hearing, seeking to challenge the rejections and to initiate a judicial inquiry regarding the CD turning blank.
While Pawar again challenged the request, the court agreed to list the case for further hearing.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
