Indian court extends Varun Gandhi parole

India’s top court Friday extended the parole of Varun Gandhi, a black sheep of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty who is facing charges for inciting religious hatred during election campaigning.

Gandhi’s release order will be reviewed next on May 14, the Supreme Court ruled, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

The court had earlier ordered his release on April 16 on the condition that Gandhi refrain from making any speeches that could inflame communal tensions in Hindu-majority India.

The 29-year-old was arrested in March after he allegedly told supporters at an election rally that he would “cut the heads of Muslims”.

The rally was filmed and the footage aired on Indian television, after which Gandhi was taken into custody.

A great-grandson of India’s first premier Jawaharlal Nehru, Varun Gandhi has broken with the “first family” of Indian politics by joining the opposition Hindu nationalists, rather than the secular-minded Congress Party that the Nehru-Gandhi lineage has dominated since independence.

Following his release, Gandhi filed his papers to contest India’s five-stage national polls, which started on April 16, as a candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

AFP