National Herald case: Court issues notice to Sonia and Rahul

New Delhi: A Delhi Court today issued notice to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and others for seeking some documents pertaining to the National Herald case. Petitioner sitting BJP MP Subramanian Swamy charged the Congress, in the court with hatching conspiracy to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying Rs 50 lakh, by which Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore on account of the Associated Journals Pvt Ltd (AJL) owners of the National Herald.

Mr Swamy has named as accused Ms Gandhi, Mr Gandhi, Party Leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and the their company Young Indian Pvt Ltd. All the accused, including Gandhi(s), have denied the allegations leveled against them by Mr Swamy. Mr Swamy had told the court last month that he would file an application for the summoning of documents where Ms Gandhi, Mr Gandhi and others are accused.

Counsel for accused submitted to the court that the documents which were summoned earlier should be returned as the High Court had set aside the trial court’s January 11 and March 11 orders. He further submitted that in pursuance to the trial court order, some documents were summoned and they were taken on record, but now after the High Court’s order, these documents cannot be kept on record.

They also placed the copy of the High Court order before the court. It is submitted on behalf of Mr Swamy that these documents should be kept in the court and he would file a fresh application soon. The court has fixed October 4 as the next date for further hearing in the matter. The compliance with the notice is to be made within two weeks. (UNI)