National Herald case: Subramanian Swamy demands summoning of Income Tax documents and crucial witnesses. Sonia-Rahul lawyers cite COVID, seeking more time to cross Swamy

Trying to speed up the procedures in the National Herald case trial, petitioner BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday approached trial court for summoning crucial Income Tax orders, Income Tax officials, Land Development Department’s order for evicting Herald House and its officials, and other witnesses. Swamy also demanded summoning of former Congress General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi who issued a statement on behalf of Congress saying on November 2, 2012, about Congress giving Rs.90 crore loan to National Herald newspaper publishing company Associated Journals Limited and ‘The Pioneer’ newspaper journalist J Gopikrishnan who reported his email communications with Rahul Gandhi on the relaunch of National Herald newspaper.

On December 5 (Saturday) the case was scheduled for resuming cross-examination of Subramanian Swamy by the accused. But the advocates of the accused Congress leaders were not readily citing their inability to present in Court due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last cross-examination was in March 2020 and for the past more than two years the main accused Sonia Gandhi’s lawyers have been examining Swamy. The BJP leader has already demanded the Court for day-to-day hearing in the case and the next hearing is scheduled on December 23.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta on December 5 adjourned the matter for December 23 as the lawyers from the accused side did not appear physically and sought an adjournment.

In his application for summoning documents and witnesses, Swamy also sought summoning of Secretary-General (Registry Officer) Supreme Court Sanjeev S Kalgaonar, Deputy Land and Development Officer Rajnish Kumar Jha, Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax (circle-1) Saket Singh. For the past three years, after Swamy produced the photocopy of Income Tax orders exposing the huge tax violation of more than Rs.414 crores by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi-headed firms, the accused persons were challenging the authenticity photocopy of the Order. Swamy countered that these documents were relied on by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the High Court and Supreme Court in their petitions against the Supreme Court. PGurus already published the 105-page Order of Income Tax department on the Rs. 414 crore tax evasion by Gandhi family using National Herald newspaper[1].

“This case is a quintessential case of documentary evidence. Due to the fact that there are many documents that have been annexed to the Chief Examination of the Complainant, which are public documents, which have been marked; these are certified copies of these public documents,” the application of Swamy said.

“Due to the fact that these are marked documents, these documents need to be proved through the testimony of the appropriate witnesses. It is reiterated that as the complainant’s case is a quintessential case of the evidence being documentary evidence, therefore these documents need to be proved through their witnesses,” it said.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta on December 5 adjourned the matter for December 23 as the lawyers from the accused side did not appear physically and sought an adjournment.

Earlier, several times, the accused Congress leaders were objecting to the submission of documents and witnesses. Apart from Subramanian Swamy’s case in the trial court, Congress leaders are facing two cases in the Supreme Court. One is the Income Tax charges of Rs.414 crores-tax-evasion and the other is eviction from the Herald House, the headquarters of the defunct National Herald newspaper. Congress leaders lost these two cases in Delhi High Court in 2018 and their appeal is pending before the Supreme Court. The Enforcement Directorate has already attached two big plush buildings of the National Herald in Panchkula and Bandra in Mumbai[2].

References:

[1] National Herald case: Read 105-page Income Tax Assessment Order against Young Indian exposing Rs.414 crores gain – Jan 22, 2018, PGurus.com

[2] ED attaches Rs.64 crores-worth Panchkula office of National Herald for money laundering – May 29, 2019, PGurus.com