National Herald case: Delhi court rejects Swamy's plea seeking documents from Congress

NEW DELHI: A court here on Monday dismissed the plea of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking summoning of documents of Congress party and Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) related to the National Herald case. Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen rejected the plea in which Swamy sought the Congress party's balance sheet of 2010-2011 and other documents relating to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) in the case, and listed the matter for a February 10 hearing. The Delhi High Court on July 12 had quashed an order of a trial court summoning the same documents besides others relating to Herald House from the Finance, Urban Development, and Corporate Affairs Ministries, the Delhi Development Authority and the Registrar of Companies. The High Court had observed that the order was passed without giving any notice or opportunity of hearing to the opposite side. It had also directed Swamy to move the trial court again with a similar plea. Swamy had filed a complaint about "cheating" in the acquisition of AJL, which published the National Herald newspaper, by Young India, "a firm in which Sonia and Rahul Gandhi each own a 38 per cent stake". Swamy had accused them of allegedly conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by just paying Rs 50 lakh, through which Young Indian obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that the Associated Journals Ltd owed to the Congress. Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi, party leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and Young Indian are accused in the case. The Delhi High Court in December 2015 dismissed the plea of the Gandhis to quash the summons issued by the trial court on Swamy's complaint.