National Herald Case: Swamy withdraws name of B.S. Hooda as witness

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday withdrew his application which sought to add name of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and three bureaucrats as witnesses in the National Herald Case.

Earlier in the day, Swamy had asked the court to summon 11 witnesses related to the National Herald case and the court assured to hear him on July 1 once he will file a consolidated copy of documents and the witnesses

Swamy filed a criminal conspiracy case in 2012 against Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Congress Treasurer Motilal Vora, Congress leader Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda.

Swamy's application alleges that alleging that the Congress granted an interest-free loan of Rs 90.25 crore to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), owner of the National Herald newspaper. Swamy alleged that Congress did bungling in the loan and it was not repaid or repaid in cash.

Swamy further alleged that Sonia and Rahul were made directors of a company- Young Indian- in November 2010, which acquired almost all the shareholding of AJL and all its properties, reportedly worth Rs 5,000 crore.