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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  National Herald case: Hearing to continue today
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National Herald case: Hearing to continue today

Kapil Sibal claims essential ingredients to establish an offence of criminal breach of trust could not be substantiated by the facts in the case

Congress leader Kapil Sibal is appearing as lawyer for Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in National Herald case. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/MintPremium
Congress leader Kapil Sibal is appearing as lawyer for Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in National Herald case. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

New Delhi: Kapil Sibal, former minister and member of parliament, launched a spirited defence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the National Herald case.

Sibal appeared as the lawyer for Sonia Gandhi in the set of writ petitions filed by Congress leaders against an order of the metropolitan magistrate summoning Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others to appear in her court on 7 August.

The hearing on the matter will continue on 6 August.

He claimed that the essential ingredients to establish an offence of criminal breach of trust as alleged by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy could not be substantiated by the facts of the case.

The case is the Congress extended a loan of Rs90.25 crore to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the company that published National Herald newspaper.

Instead of recovering the loan, the party assigned the loan to a company called Young Indian, in which Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are the majority shareholders, for a paltry sum of Rs50 lakh.

As a result, Young Indian acquired 90% shareholding of AJL, which owned assets worth Rs2,000 crore. Thus, property worth thousands of crores was misappropriated by the Gandhis for their personal benefit, Swamy claimed.

Sibal argued that the loan was extended by the party because National Herald was a newspaper “aligned to the Congress party" and it was only done to “clear the balance-sheet of the company".

He added that since the paper was founded in 1937, Congress party had extended loans to it on several occasions. And as majority shareholders of Young Indian, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, could not derive any personal benefit as it was a company incorporated under section 25 of the old Companies Act from which the directors did not even receive dividends or remuneration, he added.

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Published: 06 Aug 2014, 01:21 AM IST
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