National Herald: Subramanian Swamy objects to questions in Hindi during cross examination

New Delhi: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Friday objected to the lawyer for Congress leader Sonia Gandhi for asking questions in Hindi while being cross-examination in National Herald case, saying he was a 'Tamil'.

The exchange of words took place between Swamy and senior advocate R S Cheema, appearing for Gandhi, before the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, who was recording the cross examination of the BJP leader who is the complainant in the case.

On being asked, "Dr Swamy jis sadak pe Indian Express building bana (Dr Swamy, the road on which Indian Express building was built)..., Swamy said, Please speak in English. You must remember I am a Tamil. English is the language of the court."                  

However, before the debate could escalate, the judge intervened, saying, Both English and Hindi are the languages of the court.

To this, Swamy said he only understood Sanskritised Hindi and not Urdu-Hindi.

However, Cheema thereafter refrained from using Hindi while cross examining Swamy.

Swamy, in his private criminal complaint, had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying just Rs 50 lakh, through which the Young Indian (YI) Private Limited obtained the right to recover the Rs 90.25 crore the publisher, Associate Journals Limited, owed to the Congress.

During the cross examination, Swamy told the court that the office bearers of Congress party were cheats while the Congress workers were the victims of cheating.

Senior advocate R S Cheema, appearing for Gandhis, suggested that Swamy never claimed that the Congress party was a victim of cheating perpetrated by the accused persons.

The BJP leader said, "Principal shareholders of YI are also officer bearers of Congress Party. The Congress Party workers who collected the funds were cheated. The Congress Party workers were the victim of cheating and officer bearers were cheaters."          

He further said, "The publication of National Herald was later resumed from another site from April 7, 2016. This was well after the summons in this case was issued on 26 June 2014. Therefore, it was an after thought that despite 8 years elapsing, the publication was started. Soon after the closure of publication, the entire staff, journalists and workmen were given VRS.."    

The publication was resumed "because the DDA and the Ministry of Urban Affair have initiated litigation to acquire Herald House, he added.

He denied that he had projected a picture of final and permanent closure in the complaint "to buttress a false case and had intentionally culled out portion mentioning temporary closure of National Herald".

Meanwhile, the court Friday directed a journalist, who is also a witness for Swamy in the case, to go outside the courtroom.

The development took place after Cheema pointed out that the journalist was present in the courtroom, without being summoned.

During the proceedings, Swmay told the court that the scribe was his "close confidant" and was a part of now-defunct Action Committee against Corruption in India (ACACI), promoted by the BJP leader.

Swamy also confirmed that he had made a 'tweet' in December, 2015 saying that the original research on National Herald was done by the scribe.

The BJP leader was being cross-examined in the National Herald case filed by him against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, his mother Sonia Gandhi and others.

All the seven accused in the case -- Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Vora, senior Congress leaders Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda and the YI -- have denied the allegations levelled against them.

The Gandhis, Vora, Fernandes, Dubey and Pitroda are accused of misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy.