The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has rejected the response from the All India Congress Committee on the National Herald and Young India transactions, saying they are unsatisfactory.


When the case came up for hearing in March this year, Congress President Sonia Gandhi told the Delhi High Court that the summons issued against her, Rahul Gandhi and five others in the National Herald case were "illegal", claiming no one was cheated in the acquisition process.

A bench of Justice Sunil Gaur was told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented the Congress chief, that not a single person was cheated during the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of the now defunct National Herald newspaper, by the Young Indian Private Ltd (YIL).

The CBDT will reveal the details it has on the case to the Delhi High Court during a hearing next month.


Besides Sonia and Rahul, Congress treasurer Moti Lal Vora, General Secretary Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey had moved the High Court on July 30, 2014 against the trial court order summoning them in the case.

The trial court had on June 26 last year summoned Sonia, Rahul, Vora, Fernandes, Dubey and Sam Pitroda to appear before it on August 7, 2014 on a complaint by Swamy alleging cheating in the acquisition of AJL, the publisher of National Herald newspaper, by the YIL.

Later, the High Court on August 6 had stayed the summons issued against the Gandhis and others, and on December 15, 2014 had listed the matter to be heard on day-to-day basis.

The court on December 15, 2014 had also stayed the summons till final disposal of the petitions.

The allegations against the Gandhis is that they formed a company called Young Indian with the deliberate intention of diverting funds from Associate Journals Ltd (AJL), a company owned by the Congress.