Gandhis get relief from court

New Delhi, Aug 6: The Delhi High Court Wednesday stayed until Aug 13 an order summoning Congress president

and vice president

in the National Herald case. The High Court exempted the Gandhis from appearing in the court pertaining to the National Herald Scam.

Meanwhile Subramanian Swamy said that he would go to Patiala House and seek for fresh dates in the case. He had filed a case against the Congress top leaders, accusing them of cheating and criminal breach of trust. Swamy alleges that the top leaders broke the law to grab valuable properties in Delhi, which also included the office of the National Herald that was set up by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938.

The newspaper played a prominent role in pre-independence era, but was on dodgy waters due to bad management, poor circulation and falling revenue. Following this, Congress president Sonia Gandhi decided to close the publication in 2008.

Mr Swamy alleged that the Gandhis intended to grab the property owned by the publication house, using fake papers. The property is said to be worth several thousand crores.

A case was first filed in 2001, which blamed the Congress top bosses of illegaly floating a new private company Young India, using a 90-crore loan from the Congress, which is illegal in the first place as a political party is now supposed to give loans for commercial reasons.

Being 76% stake holders of the new company, the Gandhi family was found guilty by the metropolitan magistrate Gomati Manocha. She said,"I have found prima facie evidence against all the accused. The court has directed them to appear before it on August 7."

The Gandhis challenged it, which will be heard by the High Court next Wednesday.

Former union minister Kapil Sibal, who is representing the Congress leaders, said in court that the case was "most unfortunate" and based on propaganda.

OneIndia News (with inputs from IANS)