Delhi High Court clears way for Income Tax Department to investigate the National Herald Case.
In a major setback for Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi, the Delhi High Court on Friday cleared the way for an Income Tax investigation into the National Herald Case.
A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Chander Shekhar asked the company to approach the Income Tax assessing officer, after which the firm withdrew its petition.
The court then dismissed the plea as it was withdrawn.
Young India had approached the high court seeking a direction to stay the IT proceedings and quashing of notices against it with regard to the National Herald misappropriation of assets case.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy's counsel had earlier submitted a list of witnesses and other evidences against them.
Swamy, in his private criminal complaint, has accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying just Rs 50 lakh through which Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore which Associate Journals Limited (AJL) owed to the Congress.
The Gandhis had on March 25 opposed as "vague and devoid of material particulars" Swamy's plea seeking summoning of witnesses whose names he had filed earlier.
The Gandhis, who are accused in the case along with some other Congress leaders, contended that Swamy's plea was "in the nature of a fishing and roving enquiry which is not permissible in law".
The list includes the names of eleven persons including All India Congress Committee's General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi, several officials of AJL and government officials.
The Gandhis and other accused -- Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda -- have denied the allegations levelled against them.
On December 19, 2015, it had granted bail to Sonia, Rahul, Vora, Fernandes and Dubey, who had appeared before it pursuant to summons. Pitroda was granted bail on February 20, 2016 when he had appeared in the court.
Sonia, Rahul, Vora (AICC treasurer), Fernandes (AICC general secretary), Dubey and Pitroda were summoned for alleged offences under section 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) read with section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
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