National Herald case: Court asks Sonia, Rahul to reply on Subramanian Swamy's plea in three weeks

The court considered the plea of the Congress leaders and directed Swamy to hand them over a copy of the application.     
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi | File photo
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi | File photo

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday granted three weeks’ time to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, its vice president Rahul Gandhi and four others to respond to a plea of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking certain documents from the party in the National Herald case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen granted Gandhi’s and others time till July 22. During the hearing, counsel appearing for Gandhi’s and others told the court that they are yet to receive copy of the application from Swamy.

This prompted Swamy to respond, “I tried to serve the copy to the Congress legal team but since they were abroad, I could not serve them my application for documents.”

The court then directed Swamy to hand respondents a copy of the application.

Swamy, in his complaint, has accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying just ` 50 lakh through which the Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) obtained the right to recover ` 90.25 crore that the Associate Journals Limited (AJL) owed to the Congress. Sonia, Rahul, Motilal Vora (AICC treasurer), Oscar Fernandes (AICC general secretary), Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda were summoned by the court for the alleged offences of dishonest misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust and cheating, read with criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code.

The BJP leader has sought documents from the Associate Journals Limited, that include a copy of the bank statement filed with the registrar of companies (ROC) and the minutes of the meeting in which decision to convert the loan into share capital was taken.

He also asked for the balance sheet and the profit and loss account with the auditor’s report in the year in which the loan was granted.

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