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 A Delhi court on Saturday granted unconditional bail to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party’s vice-president Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case of cheating and misappropriation. Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen granted bail to the Gandhis on furnishing a personal bond of Rs. 50,000 with one surety by each of the Congress leaders.

Former Union Minister A.K. Antony stood surety for Ms. Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for her brother Rahul.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi coming out of the Patiala House Court in New Delhi on Saturday. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

The court also granted bail to other accused in the case — Congress general secretary Oscar Fernandes, party’s treasurer Motilal Vora and the Gandhi family loyalist Suman Dubey — on the same terms and conditions.

Sam Pitroda, another accused in the case, did not appear, and the court granted him exemption from personal appearance for the day on medical grounds. He will have to appear and seek bail on the next date of hearing.

When the court granted bail to the Gandhis, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, on whose complaint the court had summoned them, urged the court to impose condition on them that they would not leave the country without the permission of the court, arguing that there were possibilities that they would flee as they are influential persons, but the court rejected his plea.

"The accused are reputed persons and the office-bearers of the country’s oldest party. There is no apprehension that they will flee," Mr. Lovleen said rejecting Dr. Swamy’s plea.

Earlier, Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, counsel for the two leaders respectively, filed bail applications for them in the court.

The Gandhis and the other accused had on December 8 agreed to appear before the court, and the Magistrate had asked them to appear on December 19.

Dr. Swamy in his complaint has alleged that the accused persons have fraudulently acquired Associated Journal Ltd. (AJL), publisher of the now defunct daily, National Herald, and transferred its assets worth crores of rupees to another company, Young Indian.

“Young Indian was in fact created as a special purpose vehicle for acquiring control over Rs 2,000 crore worth of assets of the AJL and since all the accused have allegedly acted in consortium with each other to achieve the said nefarious purpose/design, there are sufficient grounds for proceeding against all of them, the lower court had observed while summoning them last year.

Dismissing the petitions against the lower court summoning order filed by the Gandhis, the High Court had later said: "After having considered the entire case in its proper perspective, this Court finds no hesitation to put it on record that the modus operandi adopted by the petitioners in taking control of AJL via Special Purpose Vehicle i.e. Young India, particularly, when the main persons in Congress Party, AJL and Y.I. are the same, evidences a criminal intent."

National Herald Case

•     What - Subramanian Swamy, the then Janata Party president, knocked the court’s door raising questions over acquisition of a company that published the now-defunct National Herald newspaper to which Congress gave a loan of over Rs 90 crore.
      Who - Dr. Swamy alleged that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had floated a Section 25 company called ‘Young Indian’, which acquired Associated Journals, founded by late Jawaharlal Nehru, that published the National Herald and Quami Awaz.
      How - Dr. Swamy claimed it was illegal for Congress, a political party, to give loans for commercial purposes. Young Indian wrote off the loans due to Congress for a mere Rs 50 lakh and by a board resolution, the Associate Journals is sold by transfer of shares to Young Indian, which is not a newspaper or journal producing company.
      Why - The deal, Dr. Swamy alleged, was to grab prized property like Herald House in Delhi and other properties of the Associated Journals in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
      Then - Rahul Gandhi threatened legal action against Dr. Swamy. Congress challenged Dr. Swamy to prove his allegations in a court of law. As Dr. Following Dr. Swamy’s plea, a Delhi court ordered the Gandhis to appear before it on August 7, which was challenged in High Court.
      Now Sonia Gandhi, son Rahul Gandhi and others were granted bail.