National Herald case: Delhi HC declines Swamy's early hearing plea

New Delhi, Feb 18 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday declined BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's plea for an early hearing in a case against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party vice president Rahul Gandhi and others over acquisition of the National Herald newspaper.

Justice Siddharth Mridul declined to pass any order on early hearing of the case.

Swamy then withdrew his petition, saying he would move an appropriate application as per law before the concerned bench.

On Jan 27, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader had moved the Supreme Court over the same issue which also declined his request and asked him to approach the Delhi High Court.

Apart from the Gandhis, Congress treasurer Moti Lal Vora, family friend Suman Dubey, and Oscar Fernandes had moved to the high court and sought to quash the summons issued to them by a trial court on a complaint by Swamy.

The high court had stayed the criminal proceedings in a trial court.

Swamy has claimed that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, as majority shareholders of Young Indian Ltd (YIL), benefited from the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL).

On June 26, the trial court issued summons to the Congress leaders on a complaint by Swamy alleging "cheating" in the acquisition of AJL, the publisher of the now defunct National Herald newspaper, by YIL - "a firm in which Sonia and Rahul Gandhi each own a 38-percent stake".

Filing the plea, the Congress leaders said Swamy was a political opponent and the present criminal proceedings were initiated only with an intent to secure an oblique political objective.