Sonia Gandhi, Rahul get notice in National Herald case

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other leaders were asked by a Delhi court on Saturday to respond to a fresh plea of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking certain documents from the party and Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) in the National Herald case.

Besides the Gandhis, metropolitan magistrate Lovleen also issued notices to other party leaders like Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda seeking their replies within two weeks, while posting the matter for October 4.

In his application, Mr Swamy has sought documents relating to a loan given by the Congress to the AJL, the holding firm of the National Herald, saying these were necessary for the purposes of trial. He also sought certain documents from the Registrar of Companies and AJL’s income tax returns and papers from the department of income tax (DoT) in relation to income tax returns filed by AJL.

The application was filed by Mr Swamy after the Delhi high court set aside trial court’s orders summoning documents and the balance sheet of the Congress party for 2010-2011, holding that they were passed without hearing the opposite side and that the lower court orders violated the “principle of natural justice” and the right to life and liberty under the Constitution.

The documents sought from AJL included “authorisation by the members of the AJL to borrow monies in excess of its paid-up capital and free reserve of AJL, relevant extracts from the books of accounts of AJL during the period of loan and documents by which the loan was converted into shares in the books of AJL.”