Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi addressed the press following the grant of bail by the Patiala House Court on Saturday. The court has fixed February 20 as the next date of hearing.
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Earlier, Manmohan Singh and a host of Congress leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge, Ambika Soni, Shiela Dikshit, Ashwini Kumar, Meira Kumar arrived at the court complex shortly before the hearing was to commence at 3 pm. Sonia Gandhi’s daughter, Priyanka Gandhi, and former defence minister AK Antony provided personal sureties, Bureaucracy Today has learnt. Sources said the Singh-headed panel took the decision in view of Swamy being a “Z”-category protectee with CRPF cover”. Rahul Gandhi said on December 9 that, “the case was 100 per cent political vendetta coming out of the Prime Minister’s Office”. Similar protests were held at Jabalpur, Gwalior, Indore and other district headquarters, the police and Congress sources said. “We will give a determined fight because we stand for certain values and certain ideals and nobody can detract the Congress from that path”, he added.
Surjewala also said that the Congress Party won’t bow down in front of the political vendetta of Prime Minister Modi, Subramanian Swamy or the BJP.
The sixth accused person, Sam Pitroda, who is in the United States, did not appear before the court today and sought exemption on medical grounds, which was granted. “I do not have slightest doubt that the truth will come out”, she said, and also made a reference to her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi who had fought cases against her and returned to power in 1980. “Our struggle to preserve our ideals and for the interest of the poor will continue”, she said.
The government has been attacking Congress for seeking a “remedy from Parliament” for “something that happened during a judicial process” and has been suggesting that the main Opposition party was doing it to block the passage of key reform measures including GST, they said.
The case is based on a private criminal complaint lodged by Swamy in 2013 against Sonia, Rahul and others of cheating, conspiracy and criminal breach of trust in some deals involving National Herald, the now-defunct Congress mouthpiece. The Gandhis were represented by veteran Congress leader and senior lawyer Kapil Sibal. Before its closure, the paper was being run by Associated Journals Limited (AJL).
The National Herald was set up in 1938 by independent India’s first prime minister and Rahul Gandhi’s great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru.
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Following the high court’s order, on December 8 the trial court had directed them to appear on December 19.
