Hindutva leader’s grandnephew accused of deliberately concealing his maternal lineage linking him to Godse
NEW DELHI — Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has claimed that Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was a relative of Nathuram Godse, the killer of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi made the claim in an affidavit to a special court in Pune on Saturday after Savarkar’s grandnephew sued the Congress leader for defamation.
Gandhi has accused Satyaki Savarkar of deliberately concealing his maternal lineage linking him to Godse.
This claim has further escalated the legal and political tensions in the ongoing legal and political disputes between Gandhi and the Savarkar family.
The legal confrontation began when Satyaki Savarkar filed a criminal defamation case against Gandhi. The case stemmed from Gandhi’s remarks during a 2023 speech in London, where he allegedly made statements about Savarkar’s role in Indian history. In response, Gandhi filed a criminal defamation case against Satyaki, accusing him of submitting false information to the court in a May 9 petition that sought to cancel Gandhi’s bail bond on the grounds of breach of its conditions.
However, Gandhi, in his petition filed through lawyer Milind Pawar, said that the court — while granting bail to him on Jan 10 — did not impose any conditions. So, the question of breaching conditions does not arise because the case filed by Satyaki under the provisions of section 500 of the Indian Penal Code is bailable.
In his complaint against Gandhi, Satyaki Savarkar said he is the grandson of Savarkar’s brother Narayan Savarkar. In his affidavit, Gandhi claimed, “As per information, the mother of the complainant Smt. Himani Ashok Savarkar was born on 31/03/1947 and died on 11/10/2015 at Pune. Late Smt. Himani Ashok Savarkar is the daughter of Gopal Vinayak Godse, younger brother of Nathuram Vinayak Godse, who killed Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi on 30/01/1948 and was hanged along with his accomplice Narayan Apte on 15/11/1949.” It says Himani Savarkar was a Hindutva activist and married to Ashok Savarkar, Vinayak Savarkar’s nephew.
The affidavit accused the complainant of intentionally hiding information and said, “That suppression or concealment of a material fact from the court is a serious issue, considered as a fraud on the court, and can lead to dismissal of a case or denial of relief. Suppressing material facts means intentionally withholding or misrepresenting information that is relevant to a legal case.”
The affidavit further stated, according to media reports, “Savarkar family and Godse family are in blood relation. When both families are having history, which will decide the contribution, reputation, status and image in the country of both the families,” and accused Satyaki Savarkar of giving only the family tree for his paternal side, and not the maternal side, and it allegedly done to mislead the court.
The court has scheduled the next hearing in the defamation case for June 12. It remains to be seen how the court will address the blood relation claim and its relevance to the defamation proceedings.
