The Supreme Court refuses to give exemption to the Congress VP from personal appearance before the Bhiwandi court in Maharashtra in the case. Gandhi will face trial in the lower court as he withdrew his plea in the top court for the quashing of the defamation case against him.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi withdraws his plea from the Supreme Court for quashing of the defamation case against him. Says he will face trial in the lower court.
Rahul Gandhi's counsel Kapil Sibal tells the court that Rahul stands by his statement "RSS ke logon ne Gandhiji ko goli mari" and that Rahul will not withdraw his words and will "repeat what he said."
Dismissing suggestions that he had made a U-turn on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's role in killing Mahatma Gandhi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi last week insisted that he stood by 'every single word' said by him.
'I will never stop fighting the hateful & divisive agenda of the RSS. I stand by every single word I said,' he tweeted.
His tweet came after media reports said that he took a U-turn when he told the Supreme Court that he did not ever blame the RSS for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi but had only said that a 'few individuals in the organisation' were responsible for it.
Before Rahul's tweet, Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in the morning that wisdom had prevailed upon the Congress vice president.
'Good, Rahul finally admitted before Supreme Court that the RSS is not accused in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
'Wisdom has prevailed. It may be a U-turn but a good turn. The RSS a patriotic organisation. RSS - Ready for Self Service anywhere any time,' Naidu tweeted.
Rahul had tried set the record straight by telling the top court that he had never blamed the RSS as an institution for killing Mahatama Gandhi but persons associated with it were behind the assassination.
He buttressed his stand by citing paragraphs from his affidavit filed in the Bombay high court, while challenging the summons issued to him as an accused for his alleged defamatory statement in a 2015 election rally in Maharashtra.
Senior advocate and Congress leader Kapil Sibal, appearing for Rahul, cited the affidavit filed before the high court saying he had only accused certain people of the RSS and not the organisation as the killer of Mahatma Gandhi.
'I never made the statement that RSS killed Mahatma Gandhi but persons associated with the RSS killed him,' the senior advocate had told the Court.
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