NEW DELHI : A city court on Thursday summoned Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and four associates accused in a criminal case, almost one-and-a-half years after BJP leader Subramanian Swamy filed a complaint alleging cheating and misappropriation of funds in the takeover of the now defunct National Herald newspaper by a company owned by them.Besides the Gandhis, metropolitan magistrate Gomati Manocha issued summons to Congress treasurer Moti Lal Vohra, general secretary Oscar Fernandes, veteran journalist Suman Dubey and technocrat Sam Pitroda, and a representative of Young Indian Ltd.
The Congress leaders and associates are all directors of Young Indian Ltd (YI), a company incorporated in 2010, which took over the "debt" of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of National Herald.
Swamy has alleged that the accused conspired to cheat and misappropriate funds from the Congress party and appropriate at least Rs 2,000 crore worth of properties of National Herald in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow.
By paying just Rs 50 lakh, YI obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore which AJL had owed to the Congress party, which later wrote off the entire loan. In effect, YI became the owner of all the Herald properties by spending just Rs 50 lakh, Swamy has alleged. Sonia and Rahul hold 76 per cent of the shares of YI, and the rest are with the other accused.
Since the time Swamy moved the court, it held around 15 hearings, with seven adjournments. Among the witnesses in the case are complainant Swamy, Chartered Accountant R Venkatesh, Gulab Chand from the office of registrar of companies and journalist J Gopikrishnan.
In his petition, Swmay has alleged that AJL was closed down in 2008 due to financial crisis, and printing of National Herald and sister publications Navjivan (Hindi) and Qaumi Awaz (Urdu) was suspended.
"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 its authorised representative for the same date," said Manocha.
However, the court clarified, "This is only the stage of summoning of the accused. When the accused appear before the court, they shall be at liberty to refute the allegations of (Swamy) and cross examine the witnesses."
Congress said it would respond vigorously to the allegations. Party spokesman and senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, "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."
Another party leader Manish Tewari questioned the court's decision to issue summons. "With due respect to the magistrate, the order is wrong," he said, adding that the party would prove that all the actions related to the Associated Journals were above board.
Dr Swamy told TOI that his was a watertight case. He said the case has been going on for some time now, and all the documents have been cross-checked. "These are not ordinary people," he said. "I am confident that there are enough documents to convict her (Sonia Gandhi) and others in the final trial," he said.
Singhvi pointed out that the issuance of summons "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."
From Dr Swamy's "complaint and the evidence led so far, it appears that YI was in fact created as a sham or a cloak to convert public money to personal use or as a special purpose vehicle for acquiring control over Rs 2000 crores worth of assets of The Associated Journals Ltd.(AJL)," the court said. "Since all the accused persons have allegedly acted in consortium with each other to achieve the said nefarious design, there are sufficient grounds for proceeding against all of them."
The court said the funds entrusted to the accused by the Congress party "were to be utilised to advance the purposes for which the Congress party was formed". And "these funds could not have been advanced in the form of an interest-free loan to AJL, as no provisions exists in the Representation of the People Act or the constitution of the party permitting grant of any such loan to a company engaged in commercial activities," the court said.
"The accused, prima facie appears to have committed criminal breach of trust on the existing shareholders of AJL as well as against the company," it added. The court also said the accused appeared to have cheated the state exchequer by claiming tax exemption on donations meant for the party, but diverted to commercial activities.
After the court hearing, Swamy demanded that the court should impound the passports of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi so that "they do not run away from the country".
BJP spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh said, "Since the judicial magistrate has said that prima facie evidence is there against all accused which includes Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, it is a serious matter, because apparently it looks like there is a conspiracy to get assets of the National Herald estimated to be worth Rs 1600 crore. It is a case where a public firm has been morphed into a private firm."
In 2010 when the new ownership structure was brought out ,there was widespread speculation that the Congress party was set to relaunch the newspaper. It refurbished its landmark building on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, where several newspapers including the Times of India, are situated. However, the newspaper never relaunched, but now has become the reason for both Sonia and Rahul to be summoned in a criminal case.
