Herald case: Sonia, Rahul term Swamy's plea 'malafide'

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday termed  “malafide” a plea of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking some documents from the party in the National Herald case.

 The Gandhis, in their reply filed before a court here, said Swamy’s plea was “an attempt to make out a new case”.

The Gandhis and four other Congress leaders, against whom the complaint has been made, also said that the BJP leader’s plea was “a ploy to delay proceedings in the case” and “an absolute disgrace for the precious time of the court and of the larger judicial process”.

“Such an approach is impermissible in law. The endeavour of the complainant to have access to documents and then decide what his case actually shall be, displays the malafide nature of the current application,” the Congress politicians said.

The reply said that Swamy had been making “persistent efforts” to have access to documents by filing applications.

The BJP politician, meanwhile, filed a set of documents of around 450 pages reportedly relating to the Congress party, National Herald and others before Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen to seek a response from the accused as to whether those were correct.

The court posted the matter for further hearing on September 23.