VD Savarkar was released due to political pressure, not mercy pleas, grandnephew tells Pune court

Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar was released from prison because of political pressure and not due to the mercy petitions he wrote to the British colonial administration, his grandnephew Satyaki Savarkar claimed before a Pune court on Monday, reported Bar and Bench.

Satyaki Savarkar made the statement during his cross-examination before Special Judge Amol Shinde in a criminal defamation trial against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

The case stems from 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.

On Wednesday, he told the court that VD Savarkar was released from jail due to “efforts made in National Assembly in 1937”, reported Bar and Bench.

VD Savarkar was lodged at the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar islands from 1911 from 1921. He was then transferred to the Ratnagiri jail in present-day Maharashtra, from where he was granted conditional release in 1924. From 1924 to 1937, Savarkar was confined to the Ratnagiri district and was barred from taking part in politics.

During the cross-examination on Monday, Satyaki Savarar also claimed that the Kakinada session of the Indian National Congress in 1923 had passed a resolution to release VD Savarkar. “Because popularity of Savarkar was increasing...

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