National Herald case - Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and 3 other accused get bail Saturday Dec 19,2015

 

After almost a day of political drama, the hearing in the National Herald case in which Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul were summoned by the Patiala House court took just about five minutes with both of them getting bail.

 

A large number of senior leaders reached the court which was turned into a heavily guarded fortress with almost 5,000 security personnel being deployed.
The galaxy of Congress leaders at the court included former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabu Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Shiela Dikshit, Kumari Selja, Ashwini Kumar, AK Antony, Meira Kumar and Ambika Soni

The court also granted bail to all the other accused except Sam Pitroda who was not present due to ill health.The others who have been granted bail by Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen include senior Congress leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey

The petitioner and Bharatiya Janata party leader Subramanian Swamy had asked for travel restrictions to be placed on the accused but the judge declined to do say observing that Sonia and Rahul were unlikely to flee.

 "Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are reputed person having deep political grass roots. There is no apprehension that they will flee," the court remarked.

Sonia and Rahul were granted bail without any riders and both were asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000. Senior Congress leader AK Antony signed the surety for Sonia while Priyanka Gandhi Vadra did the same for Rahul.

The court fixed the next date of hearing on February 20, 2016 at 2 PM and also asked Pitroda to be present for the same.

Note

 

The Associated Journals Limited - which published the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Jawahar Lal Nehru - and its assets and liabilities were acquired by a company named Young Indian in which the Congress president and her son hold more than three fourths equity.

The Young Indian was incorporated as a not-for-profit company with paid up capital of Rs. 5 Lakh under section 25 of the Companies Act in November 2010. The Gandhis own 38 per cent shares each in the company and the remaining shares are held by Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey.

 Congress leader and senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, who represented them in court, said the company is like a trust under the law and the directors do not earn anything from it.

National Herald went out of print in 2008. At that time, the parent company had an unpaid debt of Rs. 90 Crores.

In the month after it was set up, the Young Indian board of directors passed a resolution to 'own' National Herald's outstanding debt. Subramanian Swamy alleges that debt - largely, the loan taken from the Congress Party - was made possible because the directors of Young Indian are top Congress leaders. Motilal Vora was chief managing director of Associated Journals and is treasurer of the Congress.

The Congress says it gave the loan because the party's objectives matched National Herald's.
BJP leaders say the Congress enjoys income tax exemption under law for being a political party and cannot divert its funds to a commercial entity.

Subramanian Swamy's petition alleges that for an extra Rs. 50 Lakh Young Indian bought the entire share equity of Associated Journals. In the meanwhile, the Congress wrote off the loan as irrevocable.

 

Subramanian Swamy alleges through the two decisions, Young Indian has acquired the complete ownership Associated Journals' real estate - buildings in New Delhi, Lucknow, Bhopal, Indore, Mumbai, Panchkula, Patna and other places - worth at least Rs. 5000 crore by paying Rs. 50 lakh. Instead, some assets should have been liquidated to pay off the debt, the BJP leader contends