Cong objects to Jaitley's remarks in Herald case

The Congress on Tuesday took exception to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s remarks that the National Herald case, in which Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul were facing an income tax inquiry, was “prima facie strong”.

It accused the Modi government of misleading people on the case. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had alleged that the Congress had violated the law by extending loan to Young Indian, a not-for-profit company, to acquire the liabilities of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the publishers of the now-defunct National Herald.

In an interview to NDTV, Jaitley had alleged that Congress leaders had given Rs 96 crore loan out of tax exempted money to a newspaper company, AJL, which was taken over by a property company.

“The fact that the finance minister chose to comment reinforces the perception that here is a government which is motivated both by malice and vendetta in order to try and settle political scores,” Congress leader Manish Tewari said.

Acting on Swamy’s complaint, a lower court had issued summons to the directors of Young Indian, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda, asking them to appear before it on August 7. The Congress had moved the Delhi High Court against the lower court order.