National Herald case: Subramanian Swamy accuses Motilal Vora of wasting court's time

National Herald: Swamy accuses Motilal Vora of wasting court’s time New Delhi: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday accused senior Congress leader Motilal Vora of wasting the court’s time by filing frivolous applications in the National Herald case and urged it to reject Vora’s plea seeking to restrain him from sharing case related information on social media. Swamy has filed the case against Vora, Rahul Gandhi, his mother Sonia Gandhi and others. In an application moved before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, Vora said he has “time and again noticed that the complainant (Swamy) has been putting up various posts on social media regarding the daily proceedings of the instant case for the purpose of causing defamation of the accused and vilification of the court process.” [caption id=“attachment_4707041” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Subramanian Swamy. PTI[/caption] In his reply filed to Vora’s application, Swamy on Saturday urged the court to direct the Congress leader “not to waste valuable time of the court by a way of these frivolous applications". “The application needs to be dismissed and costs be imposed for taking up the time of this court by this unnecessary petition,” he said. Swamy said he “has every right to post about the instant case on social media and that it doesn’t amount to defamation of the accused or vilification of this court.” In his application, Vora had alleged that Swamy had been indulging in loud and persistent publicity amounting to an interference with the administration of justice. The application, moved through advocate Tarannum Cheema, had said, “Before and after every date of hearing he (Swamy) unleashes hostile publicity through tweets, posts on social media or statements to the media.” Meanwhile, the court recorded a part of Swamy’s statement as the complainant and posted the matter for further hearing on 17 September when it will record the remaining part of his testimony. The BJP leader, in a private criminal complaint, has accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying just Rs 50 lakh, through which Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that Associate Journals Ltd owed to the Congress. All the seven accused — the Gandhis, Motilal Vora (AICC treasurer), Oscar Fernandes (AICC general secretary), Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and YI — have denied the allegations levelled against them in the case. The court had summoned the accused persons, besides YI, on 26 June, 2014. On 19 December, 2015, it had granted bail to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Vora, Fernandes and Dubey, who had appeared before it pursuant to summonses. Pitroda was also granted bail on 20 February, 2016 when he had appeared in the court. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Vora, Fernandes, Dubey and Pitroda had been summoned for the alleged offences of misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust and cheating, read with criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code.