Court summons Cong balancesheet of 2010-11

A Delhi on Friday today summoned the balancesheet of Indian National Congress (INC) for the year 2010-11 in connection with the National Herald case, in which Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi and five others are accused.

Besides, the court summoned the balancesheet of 2010-2011 of Associated Journals Pvt Ltd (AJL), observing that these documents of INC and AJL could not be referred as “personal documents” of the accused. “Accordingly, it is directed that the balancesheet of INC pertaining to the year 2010-11 be summoned on filing of PF (process fee) for the next date of hearing,” Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen said in his three-page order.

“At the very outset, this court must observe that the documents referred to in the present application belong to two separate entities, i.e., INC and AJL. By no stretch of imagination, the documents could be referred to as ‘personal documents’ of accused persons,” the court said.

The order came on BJP Leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea, in which he had sought summoning of balancesheet, receipts and payments accounts, income and expenditure statements for the year 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 of INC and AJL.

Swamy had initially sought summoning of documents of Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) also, later on did not press for it during the arguments.