The complaint was filed by senior BJP leader Subramanium Swami alleging cheating and misappropriation of funds in acquiring ownership of National Herald, a daily newspaper founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, against the two Gandhis besides AICC treasurer Moti Lal Vohra, general secretary Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda.
All the accused were directors of Young Indian Ltd (YI), a company that was incorporated in 2010, and which took over the “debt” of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of National Herald.
Metropolitan magistrate Gomati Manocha issued the summons after finding a prima facie case on Swamy’s accusations that Sonia, Rahul and others conspired to cheat and misappropriate funds by just paying Rs.50 lakh in return of YI obtaining rights to recover Rs 90.25 crore that the AJL had owed to the Congress party.
“Complainant has established a prima facie case against the accused under section 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property, 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) read with section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC.
“Hence, let the accused Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Moti Lal Vohra, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda be summoned for August 7, 2014. Let the Young Indian be summoned through it’s authorised representative for the same date,” said Manocha.
Reacting to the development, Congress spokesman and a senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the party will respond “vigorously” to the allegations made by Swamy.
“Dr Swamy is known for his personal, motivated campaign against the Congress and you can take it that as and when we receive the papers and take the full legal advice a very vigorous response will be filed in respect of this completely false and motivated complaint.
“Issuance of process over a stale complaint made a year ago is not something to be excited about. Let’s seek comprehensive legal advice and you will see how all allegations are legally demolished,” Singhvi said.
Young Indian Pvt Ltd was incorporated on November 23, 2010 under the Companies Act in which Sonia and Rahul owned 38 per cent shares each. In December 2010, Swamy claimed YI’s board of directors passed a resolution to “own” AJL’s outstanding debt and “admittedly obtained an unsecured zero interest loan from the Congress Party” for an equivalent amount to liquidate the debt.
