The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy while declining to issue an immediate stay on the summons issued to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi by the Magistrate’s court in the National Herald case. The next hearing will take place on August 5.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate has also initiated preliminary probe in the matter on a petition filed by Swamy regarding the money laundering aspects.Congress leaders including Manish Tewari termed the ED move as “political vendetta.” A battery of lawyers, led by former law Minister Kapil Sibal, argued for staying and quashing the New Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate’s order on summoning Sonia and Rahul on August 7. Swamy also made a brief argument that he should be heard on the matter and accused that the petitions were filed without serving a copy to him.
“The matter is listed on August 7 before the trial court. I will pass an order before that. We will hear all parties,” said Justice VP Vaish, interfering into the cross arguments between Swamy and Sibal on maintainability of the petition.Besides Sibal, senior lawyers including Abhishek Singhvi, Haren Raval and Ramesh Gupta appeared on behalf of the Congress president and vice president.
Apart from Sonia and Rahul, Congress leaders Moti lal Vora, Oscar Fernandez and Gandhi family loyalists Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda were summoned by the trial court for misappropriating more than `2000-crore worth of properties of the defunct National Herald newspaper.In their appeal petition in High Court, Sonia and Rahul alleged that Swamy’s move was “politically motivated and intended to wreak vengeance and unleash political vendetta.” The petition also had annexure of series of Swamy’s tweets against the duo.