NEW DELHI: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday told the court he stands by his 2014 statement that the RSS killed Mahatma Gandhi and is ready to face trial for saying that, and withdrew his petition seeking to quash a defamation case against him.
Rahul will be facing trial in a Bhiwandi court in Maharashtra where the defamation case is filed. The Supreme Court (SC) today said it will not exempt him from making a personal appearance. The top court said the trial court will decide the case without being influenced by any other court’s orders.
” RSS ke logon ne Gandhiji ko goli mari “, is what Rahul said in a Mumbai rally in 2014. That is, Rahul said, “The RSS’s people shot and killed Gandhiji.”
This development comes a little over a week after it seemed like Rahul backtracked and told the Supreme Court he never meant to accuse the whole of the RSS of assassinating Gandhi.
“Rahul Gandhi never accused the RSS as (an) institution for the crime,” the Congress vice president’s counsel, Kapil Sibal, told the court over a week ago.
At the time, it also appeared then that the defamation case against the Congress vice president may be dropped, because Rahul recanted. The RSS activist who filed the criminal defamation case had offered to withdraw the case against Rahul if he absolved the RSS of the assassination.
The court said at the time that the inference from Rahul’s statement is that he never accused the RSS as an institution for Gandhi’s assassination. “Rahul never blamed the RSS but blamed a person associated with the RSS,” the court said it inferred from Rahul’s affidavit.
On July 19, the Supreme Court told Rahul to express regret for his comments holding the RSS responsible for Gandhi’s assassination or be ready to face a defamation trial.
