Delhi’s Patiala House Court on Monday dismissed a petition from Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy seeking documents from the Congress and its Associated Journals Ltd in connection with the National Herald case. Swamy had said that the documents containing financial and account-related information would be crucial in the case of corruption against the Gandhi family.
The BJP MP told ANI that he will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court. “The National Herald took a lot of benefits from the government,” he said. The Patiala House Court scheduled the next hearing for February 10.
In August, the court had asked those involved, including Congress leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda, to respond to Swamy’s plea. The petition had said that the financial documents would detail a loan the Congress had given to AJL, along with relevant material from the Income Tax Department and Registrar of Companies.
Swamy had accused the Gandhis of illegally acquiring property worth Rs 5,000 crore for AJL, which publishes the National Herald paper. The Gandhis have also been accused of acquiring the publication for Rs 50 lakh with the aim of taking over its properties in Delhi.
“The National Herald is being used by the Nehru family to collect funds and aggrandise them, and I wanted to know whether Sonia and Rahul Gandhi got hold of Associated Journals Ltd by honest means or dishonest means,” Swamy said. “My allegation is that they acquired [the newspaper] through dishonest means, which is criminal misappropriation and criminal breach of trust,” The Times of India reported.
The BJP leader’s complaint, filed in 2012, accused the Gandhis and other major shareholders in the AJL of providing an interest-free loan of Rs 90.25 crore to the company and then transferring the debt to Young India Limited, a holding in which both party leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi own a 38% stake.
Earlier this year, the Enforcement Directorate registered a criminal case in the matter under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The Haryana State Vigilance Bureau has also registered a case of corruption against former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for allegedly re-allotting a plot to the AJL in Panchkula in 2005.
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