NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Thursday disallowed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy's petition that sought either admission or denial of the documents by UPA chief Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.
The court, however, allowed Swamy to summon those documents, officials after examination, as evidence.
"What Court is saying is that instead of accused confirming or denying, you move the evidence becoming a witness yourself and summon documents and witnesses who are competent and at that stage, we'll decide on the admissibility of the documents," Swamy told news agency ANI.
Swamy has accused the Gandhis and the others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying just Rs 50 lakh through which the Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that the Associate Journals Limited (AJL) owed to the Congress.
The BJP leader had filed a set of documents of around 450 pages reportedly relating to the Congress party, National Herald and others before the court, seeking a response from the accused as to whether these were correct.
The Gandhis and the other accused - senior party leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda - have denied the allegations levelled against them in the case.
The court had summoned the accused persons, besides the YI on June 26, 2014.
On December 19, 2015, it had granted bail to Sonia, Rahul, Vora, Fernandes and Dubey, who had appeared before it pursuant to summonses. Pitroda was granted bail on February 20, 2016 when he had appeared in the court.
Sonia, Rahul, Vora (AICC treasurer), Fernandes (AICC general secretary), Dubey and Pitroda were summoned for the alleged offences of misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust and cheating, read with criminal conspiracy of the IPC.
(With inputs from PTI)
