National Herald case: Delhi Court seeks Congress balance sheet

The counsel for the party submitted to Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen that the court summons seeking the balance sheet was received only on March 19 and that there was also lack of clarity about the year to which the documents pertain.

National Herald case, national herald, sonia gandhi, rahul gandhi, gandhis, congress, letter to the editor

Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi (Source: Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

The Delhi court on Monday directed the Congress to submit its balance sheet for the year 2010-11 by April 8, after the party sought more time to submit the documents.

The counsel for the party submitted to Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen that the court summons seeking the balance sheet was received only on March 19 and that there was also lack of clarity about the year to which the documents pertain.

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The court will now take up the matter on April 8. On March 11, allowing BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea, M M Lovleen had summoned the balance sheet of 2010-2011 of Indian National Congress (INC) and Associated Journals Pvt Ltd (AJL), observing that these documents of INC and AJL could not be referred as “personal documents” of the accused.

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During the proceedings, MM Lovleen sought a reply from Congress representative present in the court as to whether any office bearer was present to receive the court orders. “I am asking you, if there was officer bearer to receive the orders. Doesn’t anyone work on a Saturday in the party office,” asked Lovleen.

To which, the Congress office peon, replying in negative, said that “mostly” all the office bearers are on leave. “No one was present. Mostly all the office bearers are on leave on Saturdays,” the Congress office peon said.

Kaunain Sheriff M

Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies. With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health. His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award. Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time. Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More

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