National Herald case: Stay on summons to Gandhis continues
New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday continued its stay till Sep 3 on the summons issued to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.
Justice V.P. Vaish had earlier suspended the June 26 trial court order of summoning Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party vice president Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders Aug 7 till today (Wednesday).
Apart from the Gandhis, Congress treasurer Moti Lal Vohra, family friend Suman Dubey, and Oscar Fernandes sought to have the proceedings initiated against them quashed by a trial court here.
Senior advocate R.S. Cheema started arguments on behalf of Dubey saying the process has been wrongly issued by the lower court in the case.
The trial court issued the summons on a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy alleging "cheating" in the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL), the publisher of the now defunct National Herald newspaper, by Young Indian Ltd. (YIL) - "a firm in which Sonia and Rahul Gandhi each own a 38-percent stake".
Filing the plea, the Congress leaders said Swamy was a political opponent and the present criminal proceedings were initiated only with an intent to secure an oblique political objective.
Swamy alleged that AJL had received an interest-free loan of Rs.90.25 crore from the Congress and that the party transferred the debt to YIL for Rs.50 lakh.
At the time, AJL, which had Vora as its chairman, claimed that it could not repay the loan and agreed to transfer the company and its assets to YIL.