Soon after the Delhi High Court ordered a probe into the National Herald case, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday suggested that the Congress party frontrunners Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi must disclose the profits recovered from the National Herald in a public space.
"Rahul and Sonia are scared of being exposed in public. They have looted profits worth Rs. 5,000 crore off the National Herald and now with the probe being approved they are scared of coming out in public. They must confess their wealth in public as it will be good for the democracy," BJP leader GVL Narsimha Rao told ANI.
Dubbing a similar opinion, BJP leader Sambit Patra said the 'scammers', who are out on bail would have to face dire consequences of misusing income tax provisions.
"Sonia and Rahul have majorly scammed the Income Tax department and misused the provisions given to them on account of being a political party. This has come as another jolt to them," he said.
The Delhi High Court on Friday gave its nod to an Income Tax probe into the matter.
Earlier, the Patiala House Court had allowed investigation of income tax of the Gandhis, which was then challenged at the Delhi High Court.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had filed an application in 2012, accusing Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul and others associated with the Congress of conspiring to cheat in the land deal.
In his complaint, Swamy had alleged that the Congress granted an interest-free loan of Rs. 90.25 crore to the AJL, owner of the National Herald newspaper, established by Jawaharlal Nehru, which was either not repaid or repaid in case, which was in violation of Section 269T of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
In August, the court issued notices to Sonia, Rahul and five others on Swamy's application seeking presentation of certain documents from Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd (AJL) and Indian National Congress (INC) in connection with the National Herald case.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)