VD Savarkar filed 10 mercy petitions before British, grandnephew tells Pune court

Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar filed 10 mercy petitions before the British colonial administration seeking that his sentence be reduced, his grandnephew Satyaki Savarkar told a Pune court on Monday during a criminal defamation trial against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Live Law reported.

The statements were made during Satyaki Savarkar’s cross-examination before Special Judge Amol Shinde.

The case pertains to a complaint filed by Satyaki Savarkar in April 2023 against Gandhi, accusing him of making false and malicious remarks about the Hindutva ideologue during an event in London in March 2023.

During the hearing on Monday, Satyaki Savarkar said that “it is true to say that Savarkar had filed a clemency petition ten times” adding that records of the mercy petitions were available in government archives, Live Law reported.

However, he rejected the suggestion that filing clemency petitions was inconsistent with the Hindutva ideologue’s title of “veer”, or heroic.

Satyaki Savarkar also acknowledged that several other freedom fighters of the period, including Rajguru, Bhagat Singh, Batukeshwar Dutt and Ashfaqulla Khan, did not submit clemency petitions.

“It is true to say that Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt remained steadfast in their ideology and principles until the very end,” Live Law quoted Satyaki Savarkar as saying. “I am aware that revolutionist Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt did not compromise on their principles and ideologies in...

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