Rahul Gandhi threatens legal action against Subramanian Swamy, dubs charges as false

New Delhi: Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday threatened legal action against Janata Party president Subramanian Swami dubbing his charges as "utterly false, entirely baseless and defamatory". Rahul Gandhi's office has sent a letter to Swamy hitting back at his allegations. "The allegations made by you are utterly false, entirely baseless and defamatory. Please be informed that we shall pursue the legal remedies open to us against the utterly motivated and irresponsible contents of your press conference," the letter said.

Earlier, Swamy on Thursday targeted Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi 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.

Addressing a press conference here, he said Sonia and Rahul had floated a Section 25 company called 'Young Indian' each with a share holding of 38 per cent, which acquired Associated Journals, founded by late Jawaharlal Nehru, that published the National Herald and Quami Awaz. Swamy said Associated Journals obtained an unsecured loan of over Rs 90 crore from AICC which he claimed was illegal under Income Tax Act because a political party cannot give loans for commercial purposes.

Subramanian Swamy on Thursday targeted Sonia and Rahul Gandhi accusing them of converting a public firm into a private company.

He also alleged that the Young Indian wrote off the loans due to AICC 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. The deal, Swamy alleged, was to grab prized property like

Herald House in Delhi and other properties of the Associated Journals in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

He demanded a joint probe by Company Affairs Ministry and CBI and wrote a letter to the Prime Minister pressing his demand. Congress was dismissive of Swamy's allegations, saying that there were some "characters" who utter "anything, anytime". "In every society and country, you have some characters. The person you are referring to might be one of them who could speak anything, anytime," AICC General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said.

BJP demanded an immediate probe into the allegations. "The government should immediately order a probe into the allegations," senior BJP leader Balbir Punj said.

(With additional inputs from PTI)

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