Pune, February 17 Satyaki Savarkar, the grandnephew of V.D. Savarkar and the complainant in a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi concerning his comments about the late revolutionary and Hindutva ideologue, filed an application in the court here on Tuesday seeking voice samples of the Congress leader.
Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, Satyaki's lawyer, moved the application before Judicial Magistrate (First Class) (MP/MLA Special Court) A.A. Shinde.
He has presented evidence to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt, but "for the proper adjudication of certain electronic recordings, the voice samples of the accused (Rahul Gandhi) are essential evidence," the plea stated.
The court should direct the accused to provide his voice samples to the appropriate authority, Satyaki said, and also sought a direction to the Forensic Science Laboratory authorities to conduct a scientific analysis and comparison of the collected samples with the recordings on court record.
Satyaki Savarkar filed a complaint in 2023 before the magistrate alleging that Rahul Gandhi, currently Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, claimed in a speech in London that V.D. Savarkar had written in a book that he and five to six of his friends once beat up a Muslim man, and he (Savarkar) felt happy.
V.D. Savarkar never wrote this, the complaint said.
Meanwhile, Advocate Milind Pawar, representing Rahul Gandhi, began cross-examining Satyaki Savarkar on Tuesday.