Did the Kapur Commission leave key witnesses unexamined to hide lapses in Mahatma Gandhi’s security? That is what Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, maintained in the Rahul Gandhi Cross-Examination before a Pune court on Tuesday, adding that Savarkar had no part in the conspiracy to kill Gandhi. His statements are testimony under cross-examination and have not been tested or ruled on by the court.
Pune: On Tuesday (November 3), complainant Satyaki Savarkar told a Pune Magistrate, while being cross-examined by counsel for Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, that the Justice Jivan Lal Kapur Commission did not call key witnesses in its inquiry into the Mahatma Gandhi assassination because their evidence would have exposed shortcomings in the police’s protection of Gandhi. Satyaki Savarkar has filed a criminal defamation complaint against Gandhi over remarks about Vinayak Damodar Savarkar [Satyaki Savarkar v. Rahul Gandhi].
Advocate Milind D Pawar conducted the cross-examination for Rahul Gandhi, and Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar appeared for the complainant. The cross-examination will continue on December 4.
What the complaint alleges
The complaint arises from a speech Rahul Gandhi made in the United Kingdom in March 2023. According to the complaint, he claimed that Savarkar had written in his memoirs about an incident in which he and others assaulted a Muslim man and derived pleasure from it. Satyaki Savarkar has initiated criminal defamation proceedings under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code and sought compensation under Section 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, asserting that no such incident appears in Savarkar’s published works and accusing Gandhi of distorting history. Rahul Gandhi is contesting the complaint, and the allegations against him remain to be proved at trial.
The witnesses he says were never called
Advocate Pawar put several portions of the Kapur Commission report to the complainant. The one-man commission was set up to inquire into the conspiracy behind the killing of Mahatma Gandhi. Savarkar accepted that he had not read the report in full, and when questioned on its chapters, he declined to evaluate its findings directly. He maintained, however, that several persons, including the prime convict Madanlal Pahwa and Digambar Badge, were not examined by the Commission. He told the court:
“The witnesses who were not called for examination are Madanlal Pahava, Digambar Badage, Gajanan Damale, Appa Kasar etc. They were not called because the ignorance of protecting Gandhiji would have been revealed.”
Passages the defence put to him
The defence drew the court’s attention to parts of the report reproducing the testimony of Barrister Purshottam Trikamdas on Mahatma Gandhi’s remarks in early January 1948, in which Gandhi was described as being in a depressed mood and as saying that nobody listened to him. The complainant was also shown paragraphs dealing with intelligence warnings and the security arrangements for Gandhi, including a passage recording that Sardar Patel had wanted every visitor to Gandhi searched as early as September 1947, which Gandhi did not allow.
As placed before the court, the Commission’s report records that Madanlal Pahwa had planned to kill Gandhi but had not involved Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in that plan.
What he said on October 14
At the earlier cross-examination on October 14, Satyaki Savarkar had testified that he does not support the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and that Vinayak Savarkar had also condemned it. He had also denied suggestions that Savarkar attempted to take his own life by jumping into the sea at Worli out of fear of the Commission.
Why the hearing matters
In a criminal defamation trial, the complainant’s account of the person said to have been defamed is tested through cross-examination, and the defence is entitled to confront him with historical records to probe that account. Tuesday’s session centred on the Kapur Commission’s findings on the Gandhi assassination, a record both sides are using to support their positions. What the complainant said in the witness box is evidence still under test. The court has made no finding on the truth of the remarks attributed to Rahul Gandhi, on whether they were defamatory, or on the historical questions raised, and Gandhi is presumed innocent unless the charge is proved.
Case Title: Satyaki Savarkar v. Rahul Gandhi (criminal defamation complaint under Section 500 IPC)
Court: Magistrate, Pune
Date of Hearing: November 3, 2026
Next Date: December 4, 2026
Appearances: Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar for complainant Satyaki Savarkar; Advocate Milind D Pawar for Rahul Gandhi