National Herald: How the Court Denied Swamy’s “Fishing Enquiry”

Swamy, in his complaint, has accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds.

In what must be a relief to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Patiala House Court on Monday rejected BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy’s “fishing enquiry” of a plea, seeking a direction to Congress party and Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) to produce certain records related to the National Herald case.

The court observed that most of the documents sought “do not seem relevant in view of context of present allegations” and “do not seem to be connected to the facts required to be proved by the complainant”.

Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen, meanwhile, gave one last opportunity to Swamy to submit the list of his witnesses in the case lodged against the Gandhis and some other Congress leaders, and fixed the matter on 10 February for hearing arguments on framing of charges.

The biting observations by the court should have been embarrassing to Swamy, who is a senior lawyer. However, the rebukes did little to change his demeanour, and he remained his combative self after the order.

They have been saying that I don’t have a case, how can that be when the court has issued summons for them? So, they are buying time and delaying, but they will not escape.

Subramanian Swamy

Here are the most important observations from the Court’s order.

Also Read: National Herald Case: AJL’s Assets Only 2-5% of Swamy’s Claims

(With inputs from PTI.)