The Delhi High Court on Monday directed BJP MP Subramanian Swamy and Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to submit a concise note on their arguments in the National Herald case.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna instructed them to file their written submissions within four weeks. Subsequent submissions will incur a cost of Rs.15,000.
The court scheduled the next hearing for October 29.
Swamy’s plea seeks permission to present evidence before the trial court in the case, where the Gandhis and others are accused. On February 22, 2021, the high court issued a notice to the Gandhis, AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes (now deceased), Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, and Young India (YI), and paused the proceedings in the case.
The stay order will remain in effect until the next hearing.
Senior advocates RS Cheema and Tarannum Cheema represented the Congress leaders in court. Swamy challenged a February 11, 2021 trial court decision that denied his request to present evidence against the Gandhis and other accused. The trial court had decided to consider Swamy’s application under section 244 of the CrPC after his examination was completed.
Swamy requested the summoning of certain witnesses, including a Supreme Court registry officer, a deputy land and development officer, and a deputy commissioner of the income tax department, to validate specific documents related to the case.
In his private criminal complaint, Swamy accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying only Rs 50 lakh. Through this payment, Young Indian Private Limited (YI) allegedly secured the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that Associate Journals Limited, the publisher of the “National Herald” newspaper, owed to the Congress.
All seven accused in the case— the Gandhis, AICC treasurer Motilal Vora, Fernandes, Dubey, Pitroda, and YI—denied the allegations. The proceedings against Vora were dropped following his death. The other accused were summoned by the trial court in 2014 for alleged offenses of misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust, and cheating.
