In what comes as a relief for Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Delhi HC on Wednesday stayed the criminal proceedings against them in a case relating to acquiring ownership of National Herald daily till August 13 before a trial court.
Justice VP Vaish said, “Renotify the matters on August 13. Till that time, the impugned order dated June 26, 2014 of the trial court against the accused shall remain stayed.”
The stay has come as an aid to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others including Congress treasurer Moti lal Vora, general secretary Oscar Fernandes, Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey who have been asked to appear before a trial court on Thursday.
The court’s order came after senior lawyers, Kapil Sibal, AM Singhvi and Harin Raval, appearing for Sonia, Rahul and Vora respectively, concluded their arguments with the plea that the complaint and summons be quashed as the trial court order was “erroneous” on fact and law as well. The Congress leaders have challenged a lower court’s summoning orders against them on a complaint of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy alleging cheating and misappropriation of funds in the acquisition of the daily by Young Indian (YI).
Pitroda is the only accused who, so far, has not moved the High Court as the summons have not been served on him. Besides the Gandhis, Vora is among the directors of Young India which were recently given almost 99 per cent ordinary shares of the Associated Journals limited (AJl). AJl had been publishing newspapers National Herald in English, Navjivan in Hindi and Quami Awaz in Urdu.
While summoning the six as accused in the case, the trial court had held that Swamy has established a prima facie case of cheating, misappropriation of funds and criminal breach of trust against them.