National Herald Case:Delhi court dismisses Subramanian Swamy's petition

Dr Swamy had argued that the accounts need to be scrutinised to establish whether Congress leaders gave 90 crores in loan from tax exempted money to the National Herald newspaper.

The Congress argues that it is well within its rights to give such a loan with the intention of reviving a newspaper in the national interest.

The newspaper was set up in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister and Rahul Gandhi's great-grandfather. It shut down in 2008 after struggling for decades with mismanagement and poor earnings.

The Congress leadership, including Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, have been listed as accused over the transfer of equity to a private firm which, Dr Swamy said, was done to acquire National Herald's high worth properties.

The Gandhis have been accused of illegally acquiring property worth 5,000 crore belonging to the newspaper.

 Delhi court dismisses Subramanian Swamy's petition seeking documents related to National Herald, next hearing on Feb 10th. Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had filed an application seeking documents and ledger books from the Congress Party and the Associated Journals Limited.

Swamy has accused them of allegedly 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 Associated Journals Pvt Ltd owed to the Congress party. All the accused have denied the allegations levelled against them by Swamy. The court has said that the documents sought by Swamy will not be provided.

 Swamy in his petition alleged that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi got hold of Associated Journals through 'dishonest means' which pertains to 'criminal misappropriation and criminal breach of trust'.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi, party leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and Young Indian Pvt Ltd are accused in the case filed by Swamy.