The two-year-long dispute on production of documents in National Herald case came to an end on Saturday, with the Special Court ordering for examination of petitioner Subramanian Swamy from July 21 and allowing him to produce the documents and summoning of officials to verify. The newly-formed designated court for the trial of MPs and MlAs also ordered completion of the trial in the politically sensitive case within a year.
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Samar Vishal, however, rejected Swamy’s demand that the accused should admit or deny about the documents produced by him. Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were vehemently objecting to Swamy’s demand for production of documents from 2016. Earlier, trial court had ordered the production of documents in January 2016 but the High Court quashed the order citing that the trial court did not hear the version of the accused before passing the order.
later, Swamy made another petition under Section 294 of the CrPC for the admission or denial of documents by the accused, citing that the same documents he wanted were produced by Sonia Gandhi in the SC. “The contention of the complainant is that these are the documents of accused themselves as they were filed along the Special leave Petition filed by one of the accused in Supreme Court. Be that as it may, this will not give a right to the complainant to get these copies mandatorily admitted or denied by the accused. None of the accused are stated to be the author of any of these documents. The purpose of Section 294 is to truncate the trial but this does not mean that rules of evidence can be compromised with,” said the order dismissing Swamy’s demand.
Observing delay for more than two years in the trial ACMM Vishal said that after the examination, Swamy can produce the documents and its authenticity can be verified by summoning the concerned officials. Apart from the Associated Journal limited and Young Indian firm’s documents, Swamy wanted authentication of crucial Income Tax Order indicting Sonia, Rahul-owned firm Young Indian for hushing up the taxable income of Rs 415 crore and penalty of Rs 249 crore.