(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The trial court issued summons to the Congress leaders for August 7 on a complaint by Subramanian Swamy alleging "cheating" in the acquisition of AJL the publisher of the now defunct National Herald newspaper.In a major relief to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi the Delhi High Court on Wednesday put on hold a trial court's summons to them in the case over acquisition of the National Herald.
Justice V.P. Vaish suspended the trial court order till August 13 when it will hear arguments in the bunch of petitions filed by the Congress leaders challenging the lower court order.
Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Sonia Gandhi sought to quash the trial court proceedings saying: "Every decision of the magistrate at every point is erroneous."
"These are unfortunate proceedings against a party that is seeking to revive a newspaper which is associated with the Congress party for over 80 years. Courts must be extremely careful in scrutinising the matter in the case" he said.
Sibal refuted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy's claim that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as majority shareholders of Young Indian Ltd. (YIL) benefited from the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL).
He clarified that YIL was a Section 25 company which is in the nature of a society and its shareholders do not get any dividend salary or benefit.
Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Rahul Gandhi argued that the shareholders of YIL had no ownership of the properties of AJL.
He said all the properties of AJL even today are with the publishing house and not with its 762 shareholders.
"The properties owned by AJL in Delhi Mumbai Patna and Panchkula are under government leases except for one property in Lucknow which is under a long-term lease to a charitable eye hospital. The covenants of these properties specifically restrict the disposal of these properties" said counsel of the Congress leaders.
Singhvi also contended that Swamy had withheld information about the Election Commission dismissing a similar complaint made by him in November 2013 in which he had sought the Congress party's de-recognition for giving an unsecured loan to a private company.
Apart from the Gandhis Congress treasurer Moti Lal Vohra family friend Suman Dubey and Oscar Fernandes sought to quash the proceedings initiated against them by a trial court here.
On June 26 the trial court issued summons to the Congress leaders for August 7 on a complaint by Swamy alleging "cheating" in the acquisition of AJL the publisher of the now defunct National Herald newspaper by YIL - "a firm in which Sonia and Rahul Gandhi each own a 38-per cent 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 Rs90.25 crore from the Congress and that the party transferred the debt to YIL for Rs50 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. For more news from Khaleej Times follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes and on Twitter at khaleejtimes Follow khaleejtimes ->
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.