Petition by Subramanian Swamy for the Congress to submit documents was rejected by Delhi court.
Highlights
- Court rejects Subramanian Swamy's petition for National Herald documents
- Plea sought checking of Congress accounts for loans to National Herald
- Gandhis accused of illegally acquiring assets belonging to the newspaper
In some reprieve for the Congress party in the National Herald case, a Delhi court has dismissed BJP lawmaker Subramanian Swamy's petition asking for its account books.
Dr Swamy had argued that the accounts need to be scrutinised to establish whether Congress leaders gave 90 crores in loan from tax exempted money to the National Herald newspaper.
The Congress argues that it is well within its rights to give such a loan with the intention of reviving a newspaper in the national interest.
The newspaper was set up in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister and Rahul Gandhi's great-grandfather. It shut down in 2008 after struggling for decades with mismanagement and poor earnings.
The Congress leadership, including Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, have been listed as accused over the transfer of equity to a private firm which, Dr Swamy said, was done to acquire National Herald's high worth properties.
The Gandhis have been accused of illegally acquiring property worth 5,000 crore belonging to the newspaper.
The Congress leaders are also accused of acquiring the newspaper for just Rs. 50 lakh with the aim of grabbing its properties in Delhi worth thousands of crores.