National Herald case: Relief for Congress as Delhi HC sets aside trial court order

The trial court had summoned various documents from the Finance Ministry and other agencies and the Congress party`s 2010-11 balance sheet in connection with the National Herald case.

New Delhi: In a big relief for Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside a trial court order of summoning documents from the Finance Ministry and other agencies and Congress party's balance sheet for 2010-11 in connection with the National Herald case.

The trial court had earlier this year summoned various documents from the Finance Ministry and other agencies, including the Congress Party's balance sheet for the year 2010-11.

The High Court had earlier on April 18 reserved its order on the pleas of Congress leaders challenging summoning of documents from different ministries in connection with this case filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

A Delhi court had on March 11 given its nod to Swamy's plea, seeking the balance sheets of the Indian National Congress (INC) and Associated Journals Pvt Limited (AJL) for the purpose of investigation in this case.

Swamy had on March 1 approached a Delhi Court seeking summoning of certain documents related to the financial details of Congress, AJL and Young Indian Pvt. Ltd.

In an application moved before Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen, Swamy sought to summon the balance sheet, receipts, income and expenditure statements for assessment years 2010- 11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 of the INC, AJL and Young Indian Pvt. Ltd.

Besides the Congress president and her son, Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda are the other accused in this case.

Swamy had accused Sonia, Rahul and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by just paying Rs. 50 lakh by which YI obtained the right to recover Rs. 90.25 crore which the AJL had owed to the Congress.

With ANI inputs