MUMBAI: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was on Wednesday granted bail by a court in Bhiwandi near here in a defamation case over his comment blaming the RSS for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.
Former Union minister Shivraj Patil stood as surety for the bail for the Congress leader after which Judge Tushar Waze adjourned the case. The next hearing will take place on January 30, the Mahatma’s
death anniversary.
Earlier, a crowd blocked complainant Rajesh Kunte’s vehicle for some time, delaying his entry into the court. Rajesh, former secretary (karyavah) of the local unit of RSS, had filed the case over Rahul’s speech in Bhiwandi on March 6, 2014, in the run up to Lok Sabha polls, where Rahul had said, “The RSS people had killed Gandhi.” On September 1, Rahul had preferred to face trial as an accused in the case, submitting before the apex court that he stood by “every word” of his statement. The apex court had refused to interfere with the criminal proceedings pending against him.
“I just want to put an end to the wrongful stigma on the Sangh,” said the complainant. “We wanted him (Rahul) to accept that he made a mistake by blaming the RSS for Gandhi’s murder. I even offered
to withdraw the petition if he said that,” Rajesh told Express.
“However, the Congress is playing the same trick again. They displayed banners that blamed the RSS for Gandhi’s murder,” he added. Asked if the thought of taking on a Nehru-Gandhi scion deterred him, Rajesh replied with a firm no. “It is in my blood,” he said. “My grandfather was jailed in 1948 during the first ban on the RSS. In 1975, my father was jailed for 18 months during Emergency.”