The Metropolitan Magistrate Court on Saturday issued notice to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other five accused in the National Herald case to respond to a fresh plea of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking certain documents from the Congress, Associated Journals ltd (AJl) and Government departments.
Magistrate lovleen directed all the accused to respond within two weeks and fixed the case for arguments on October 4.
In his application, Swamy has sought a series of documents relating to the controversial Rs 90-crore loan given by the Congress to the AJl in early 2011. Swamy said in his petition these documents are crucial for trial.
He also sought documents from Income Tax and Registrar of Companies regarding the details of loan- related documents.
Earlier, the trial court had summoned documents in January on Swamy's petition. But Congress leaders challenged the trial court's order in High Court, citing that they were not heard before issuing summoning. Delhi High Court in July had quashed the trial court summons citing error in procedures, while allowing Swamy to file fresh applications for the documents.
The documents sought from AJl included “authorisation by the members of the AJl to borrow monies in excess of its paid-up capital and free reserve of AJl, relevant extracts from the books of accounts of AJl during the period of loan and documents by which the loan was converted into shares in the books of AJl.”