BackNational Herald case: Delhi court rejects Subramanian Swamy’s plea
Subramanian Swamy's had sought to examine a number of documents from the accused in the case, that mentionAssociated Journals and the Congress
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New Delhi: A district court in Delhi on Monday dismissed a plea by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy seeking documents in the National Herald case.
“Application dismissed," said Lovleen, Metropolitan magistrate at the Patiala House district court.
The National Herald case relates to allegations of conspiracy, cheating, misappropriation of funds and criminal breach of trust. The allegations were levelled by Swamy against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, party leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, journalist Suman Dubey and technocrat Sam Pitroda.
The complaint arose due to the acquisition of Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd (AJL, publisher of the then defunct National Herald newspaper which has since been revived) by Young India Pvt. Ltd (YIL) for Rs50 lakh from the Congress. According to Swamy, this allowed YIL to recover a Rs90 crore loan from AJL which was owed to the Congress.
“It is a perverse order and I shall appeal," Swamy tweeted.
“It was inevitable that Subramanian Swamy will get exposed at some time or the other...I think this was a mountain of lies and deceit that was built up by Swamy for his own political survival," said senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday.
Swamy’s had sought to examine a number of documents from the accused in the case, including minutes of board meetings of AJL, loan agreements between AJL and the Congress, ledger extracts and profit and loss accounts of the political party.
Swamy had said his case was based on documents and could be proved using the material he had asked for.
The district court on 19 December last year granted bail to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi who had appeared before it following a summons.
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Vora, Fernandes, Dubey and Pitroda were summoned for the alleged offences under Section 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) read with section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The Supreme Court has granted exemption to Sonia Gandhi from personal appearance in the trial court and also expunged some observations of the high court, but refused to interfere with criminal proceedings before the lower court.
The case will be heard next on 10 February.
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