In her plea, Sonia denied the allegations of cheating and criminal breach of trust, and claimed that she neither appropriated nor converted any property for her own use or benefit.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son and party vice-president Rahul and three others, facing criminal charges in the National Herald case, on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court order refusing to quash the summons issued to them.
In her plea, Sonia denied the allegations of cheating and criminal breach of trust, and claimed that she neither appropriated nor converted any property for her own use or benefit. Sonia said she was only the shareholder of the property belonged to Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and a shareholder cannot be treated as owner.
The high court had on December 7, 2015 not only refused to quash the summons issued to the Congress leaders, but had also made scathing observations. It had observed that the gravity of the allegations had a "fraudulent flavour" involving a national political party, and such serious imputations, smacking of criminality, levelled against the petitioners needed to be properly looked into.
Sonia claimed that Congress party had given loan to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and there is no legal prohibition for the political party from giving any loan. "Giving of loans to AJL by the Congress party is an action which is in consonance with the objectives of the party...There is no restriction in constitution of the party for giving such loans," her plea said.
The high court order is "bad and liable to be set-aside" on the ground that the court had based the findings on "irrelevant considerations, unwanted assumptions and vague general notions of unethical nature, and unstated and unproved facts," it said adding that "the criminal breach of trust can only occur when there is entrustment of property and when the person who has entrusted the property continues to have control over such property."
Sonia contended that high court "conducted a roving enquiry into allegations of a general nature without examining the questions as to what offences are alleged to be prima facie made out".
Questioning the locus standi of the complainant and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, she said the complaint in the case was filed with the objective of defaming her. She saying she has deep roots in the society and had been at the helm of national politics for years and if the complaint and summons were not quashed, it would cause irreparable damage to her reputation.
On June 26, last year, the trial court had issued summons to the Congress leaders on Swamy's allegations of "cheating" in the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL) by Young India Ltd. (YIL) – a firm in which Sonia and Rahul Gandhi own 38% each stake.
Swamy had claimed that the Gandhis, as majority shareholders of YIL, benefited from the acquisition of AJL. He also alleged that AJL had received an interest-free loan of Rs 90.25 crore from the Congress and that the party transferred the debt to YIL for Rs 50 lakh. At the time, AJL, which had Motilal Vohra was its chairman, claimed that it could not repay the loan and agreed to transfer the company and its assets to YIL.
After the Delhi High Court had rejected their plea, on December 19 last year, Gandhis and other Congress leaders, as accused, had appeared before the trial court. Again, they have to appear on February 20 before the trial court.
Besides, Sonia and Rahul, the others facing the charges are Motilal Vohra, Oscar Fernandez, journalist Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and the Young Indian Ltd.
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