Bengaluru Court Summons Priyank Kharge and Mohammed Nalapad in RSS Defamation Case
Court finds a prima facie case over alleged defamatory remarks against the RSS and schedules the next hearing for July 21.
Bengaluru: A Bengaluru court has issued summons to Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge and Youth Congress leader Mohammed Nalapad in a criminal defamation case linked to their alleged remarks against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, also known as the RSS.
The summons were issued on June 27 after Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sandeep Patil found a prima facie case under Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The court has scheduled the next hearing for July 21, 2026.
However, the court declined to proceed against former Karnataka minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, stating that there was not enough material to continue the case against him.
The complaint was filed by A. Tejas, an RSS worker from Bengaluru. He alleged that Kharge and Nalapad made a series of defamatory statements against the RSS and its members in October 2025.
According to the complaint, Kharge wrote to the Karnataka government on October 4, 2025, requesting that the RSS be barred from using government playgrounds, schools and colleges. The complainant claimed that the letter was intentionally shared with the media and posted on Kharge’s social media accounts to damage the organisation’s reputation.
The complaint also referred to social media posts made by Kharge on October 13 and 14, 2025. In one of the posts, he allegedly advised people not to befriend RSS members, claiming they were “the real abusers” following the suicide of a man in Kerala who had accused RSS workers of repeated sexual abuse in a scheduled Instagram post.
Another post allegedly stated that the RSS had not spared Mahatma Gandhi or B.R. Ambedkar. The complainant argued that such remarks portrayed RSS members as sexual offenders and extremists, thereby harming the image of the organisation.
Nalapad was also accused of making defamatory comments during a media interaction. According to the complaint, he allegedly remarked that RSS members “have nothing beneath their shorts,” which the complainant described as insulting, obscene and intended to ridicule RSS workers.
The complaint further alleged that the statements were false, malicious and aimed at lowering the reputation of the RSS and its supporters. It also claimed that the accused neither withdrew the remarks nor issued an apology, while the continued availability of the statements on social media had worsened the alleged harm.
Regarding Dinesh Gundu Rao, the complaint cited his social media posts supporting Kharge and questioning the RSS over the killings of rationalists and journalist Gauri Lankesh, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi. The court, however, found no sufficient grounds to continue proceedings against him.
Priyank Kharge has been a vocal critic of the RSS in recent years. He has repeatedly called on the organisation to register itself and disclose details about its legal status, leadership, funding and expenditure. His statements have also drawn threats from some Hindutva groups against him and his family.