National Herald case: Subramanian Swamy withdraws plea seeking to summon BS Hooda as witness

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party senior leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday withdrew an application he had filed seeking summoning former Haryana Chief Minister and Congress leader BS Hooda and three other bureaucrats as witnesses in the National Herald case. 

Swamy had earlier told the court that Hooda was questioned by the CBI in a case related to the Panchkula plot allotment matter and his deposition, in this case, would help the present case since both the matters were related. 

Swamy, however, today told the Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen that the present case was not related to the one being investigated by the CBI. 

The court allowed his plea and has posted the matter for further hearing on July 1. 

In an another development, Swamy today urged the Delhi High Court to issue summons to all 11 witnesses related to the National Herald case. 

"Today I have been given permission to summon eight documents by the court which are partially from the Congress party and partially from the Associate Journal Pvt.

Limited. In addition, I also wanted to prove the authenticity of the documents. So, I asked for 11 witnesses to be summoned and the court said to make a consolidated list and file it and after vacation, we will hear you on July 1. In the hearing, the court will decide whether to send Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for trail or not," Swamy said. 

Recently, the Delhi High Court gave its nod to an Income Tax probe in the National Herald case. 

Earlier, the Patiala House Court had allowed investigation of income tax of the Gandhis, which was then challenged at the Delhi High Court. 

Swamy had filed an application in 2012, accusing Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul and others associated with the Congress of conspiring to cheat in the land deal.

In his complaint, Swamy had alleged that the Congress granted an interest-free loan of Rs. 90.25 crore to the AJL, owner of the National Herald newspaper, established by Jawaharlal Nehru, which was either not repaid or repaid in case, which was in violation of Section 269T of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

In August, the court issued notices to Sonia, Rahul and five others on Swamy’s application seeking presentation of certain documents from Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd (AJL) and Indian National Congress (INC) in connection with the National Herald case.