National Herald case: Delhi HC extends stay on trial court's order summoning Sonia, Rahul till Nov 3

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday extended stay on trial court's order summoning Congress President Sonia Gandhi, party Vice President Rahul and others till November 3 in a case relating to acquiring ownership of National Herald daily.

Besides Sonia and Rahul, Congress treasurer Moti Lal Vora, general secretary Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey have moved the high court against the trial court order summoning them in the case.

Sam Pitroda, who is yet to be served with the summons, has not filed a plea in the high court.

Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, on whose complaint the trial court had issued summons to the Congress leaders, had said he would be filing a synopsis of his arguments in the matter.

Swamy, in his complaint, has alleged cheating and misappropriation of funds by the Congress leaders in the acquisition of the daily by Young Indian (YI).

Besides the Gandhis, Vora is among the directors of Young India which was recently given almost 99 per cent ordinary shares of the Associated Journals Limited (AJL).

Earlier, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Congress president, had sought quashing of the trial court proceedings, saying "every finding of the magistrate, on every point, is erroneous".

"This is the most unfortunate proceedings against a party which is seeking to revive a newspaper which is associated with the Congress party for over 80 years. Courts must be extremely careful in scrutinising such matters", he had said.

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.

They were summoned under sections 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property, 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) read with section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

(With additional information from PTI)