Congress moves HC in National Herald case

The Congress on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court in the National Herald land grab case.

Zee Media Bureau/Deepak Nagpal
New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court in the National Herald land grab case. Reports said senior party leaders Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi will fight the case on behalf of the Congress. The next hearing in the case will take place on August 1. The party is seeking to quash plea against Congress president Sonia Gandhi as well as vice president Rahul Gandhi. A court had earlier this month served summons to Sonia Gandhi as well as Rahul in connection with the case. The Income tax department had also issued notices to the Congress party. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had filed a petition in the case and alleged that Sonia Gandhi and other party leaders had misappropriated funds of a company that used to publish the now-defunct National Herald newspaper. Gandhi has cited political vindictiveness as the reason behind the notices.

The complaint alleged that the Gandhis formed a company, Young India, in 2010 with 38 percent share each to take control of Rs 2,000 crore worth of assets of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), which published the National Herald. The National Herald was started in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru. Over the decades, it lost circulation and ran into major financial losses, leading to its closure in 2008. Young India thus acquired the complete ownership of AJL real estate assets of at least Rs 2,000 crore, including a multi-storeyed building in a prime location in Delhi.