Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar, told a Pune court on Monday that Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse and his brother Gopal Godse were active members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bar and Bench reported.
Savarkar made the statement during his cross-examination in a criminal defamation case filed by him against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The RSS, the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, has maintained that Nathuram Godse left the organisation before Gandhi was assassinated in 1948.
Gopal Godse, Nathuram’s younger brother, was convicted for his role in the conspiracy to assassinate Gandhi and served 18 years in prison. V.D. Savarkar was also accused in the case but was acquitted for lack of evidence.
The case against Rahul Gandhi stems from remarks he made about V.D. Savarkar during an event in London in March 2023. Satyaki Savarkar filed a criminal complaint in April that year, accusing Gandhi of making false and defamatory statements about his granduncle.
During Monday’s proceedings, Satyaki Savarkar also acknowledged that Gopal Godse and V.D. Savarkar were among those accused of conspiring to kill Gandhi, according to Bar and Bench.
He separately asked the Pune court to order Gandhi to provide a voice sample, which he said could be compared with recordings of the Congress leader’s London speech, Live Law reported.
Savarkar also challenged Gandhi’s request for exemption from appearing in court in person on security grounds. He cited Pune’s association with Nathuram Godse and pointed to Gandhi’s planned visit to the city around Aug. 22, according to Live Law.
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