A Defamation case was filed against a leading weekly magazine by Veer Savarkar’s grandnephew Ranjit Savarkar after the magazine questioned whether Veer Savarkar should be awarded the Bharat Ratna.
Ranjit Savarkar filed a criminal complaint, he invokes the sections 34, 500, 501 and 502 of the Indian Penal Code against the writer of the article as well as the editor and publisher of the magazine a year ago.
The additional chief metropolitan magistrate SJ Biyani at Mumbai’s Bhoiwada court, ordered the defendants in the case to be present in court.
Ranjit claimed in the complaint, that from the contents of the article to its headline, the piece was written: “with the sole and mala-fide intention to tarnish his image and defamed him under the garb of making a debate on the issue of the award of Bharat Ratna to Savarkar.”
He said the article is “misleading”, and alleged that the magazine, “under the guise of ‘historical research,’ twisted the historical facts & insulted a revolutionary”.
Ranjit further claims, “Referring to many wrongful & irrelevant references, the article alleged that Swatantryaveer Savarkar was opposed to tri-colour National flag, after his release from jail term he did nothing for nation, he supported two nation theory, he was involved in assassination of Gandhiji, he apologized to get released from jail etc.”
Last year when the right-wing political parties lead by Shiv Sena has demanded Bharat Ratna for Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Ranjit who was just two months old when Savarkar passed away on February 26, 1966, said. “I am not in favor of any award for Savarkar. As I believe the people of the country and across the world know his immense contribution to the freedom movement. And Veer Savarkar does not require any award to get the recognition.”