India’s Congress party leaders in court in corruption case

Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party’s president, and her son, the party’s vice president, were granted bail of 50,000 rupees ($754), Kapil Sibal, a Congress lawmaker and lawyer, told reporters. “If you are winning, then go smiling to court”, Swamy said.

The petitioner, Subramanian Swamy of the ruling BJP party, says the Gandhis took over the National Herald newspaper for its property assets.

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. The next hearing in this case will now take place on February 20.

Congress MLA V.S. Rathore however represented Sam Pitroda in the court today.

Metropolitan magistrate Gomati Manocha, had issued summons to Gandhis and other on June 26, 2014 and noted that all accused persons had allegedly acted “in consortium with each other to achieve the said nefarious purpose/design”.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh furnished the security for Sonia Gandhi, while Priyanka Gandhi furnished the security for Rahul.

Congress workers meanwhile raised slogans in support of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi at party headquarters. Sonia and Rahul are expected to leave for the court in a short while.

Their lawyers, Mr. Sibal and Mr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, briefed newspersons about the proceedings in the court. “What happened now”, he told reporters.

“There is always fight against corruption but this is the first time in the country’s history that we can see this fight for corruption, that too in a very shameful manner”, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said”. They have denied the allegations, calling them a vendetta against them by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad calling Swamy a “mask” for Modi, and said the BJP functionary has been awarded with a bungalow for dragging Congress leadership to court even though he was not a Parliamentarian or government official.

Congress members of Parliament had raised protests in both Houses of Parliament for several days against the “political vendetta”, disrupting business especially in the Rajya Sabha, where the Opposition parties have the advantage of numbers. The newspaper closed in 2008 and the company that ran it, Associated Journals Ltd, was converted into a real estate firm.