Being attacked, enjoying it: Rahul after not guilty plea in RSS defamation case

Mumbai: Rahul Gandhi on Thursday pleaded not guilty in connection with a defamation case filed against him in 2017 for allegedly linking journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder with the "BJP-RSS ideology".

Gandhi, who has publically announced his resignation as Congress president, was released on Rs 15,000 surety amount by a Mazgaon Metropolitan Magistrate court.

Former MP Eknath Gaikwad has given the surety for Gandhi.

Speaking to reporters while leaving the court premises here where he appeared in connection with a defamation case, Gandhi said: "I didn't say anything in the court. I had to appear. It's a fight of ideology. I am being attacked and enjoying it."

On being asked that how he is going to fight after publicly announcing his resignation as the Congress president, he said: "I am standing with the poor, farmers and labourers. Whatever I had to say, I said in my letter yesterday. I will continue to fight and with much more strength. I am going to fight 10 times more the way I fought in the last five years."

Read | RSS defamation case: Rahul Gandhi appears before Mumbai court

In February this year, RSS Swayam Sevak Dhrutiman Joshi had filed a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for defaming the RSS following the death of Gauri Lankesh.

Later, the Mazgaon court had issued summons to Gandhi and Yechury for questioning in connection with the case. The court had, however, dismissed the complaint against Sonia Gandhi and the CPI (M).

Lankesh, a senior journalist, was murdered at her residence in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017.

In the complainant, Dhrutiman Joshi stated that Rahul Gandhi, within 24-hours of the murder of the journalist, had criticised the RSS and alleged that "anybody who speaks against the ideology of the BJP, against the ideology of the RSS is pressured, beaten, attacked and even killed."

Joshi said that Sitaram Yechury was also heard and seen saying that it was the RSS ideology and the RSS men who killed Gauri Lankesh.

"For a mere political score, the accused had unnecessarily dragged the name of RSS and it in a move to rake up negative sentiments in the minds of the people against the RSS," the complaint stated.

Joshi had requested the court to charge the duo under Section 499 (defamation) and Section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

This is the second defamation petition against Rahul Gandhi in Maharashtra.

Another RSS activist Rajesh Kunte had in 2014 filed a defamation case against Gandhi over a statement made by him at an election rally, where he had blamed the RSS for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.