BJP leader Subramanian Swamy told a Delhi court Monday that instead of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of National Herald newspaper, its shareholders were the victim of cheating in the corruption case filed by him against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi and others.
Swamy made the submissions before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal while being cross-examined in the case.
Swamy, 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 the Young Indian (YI) Private Limited obtained the right to recover the Rs 90.25 crore the AJL owed to the Congress.
In a question put to him by senior advocate R S Cheema, representing Gandhis, Swamy said that "it is perhaps a typographical mistake" that he mentioned AJL as a victim of cheating in the case.
The clarification came after Cheema highlighted the portion in the complaint where Swamy had reportedly termed AJL as "a victim of cheating".
"It is correct that the shareholders of AJL were cheated. I have not said that AJL was cheated... It is perhaps a typographical mistake that I mentioned AJL as a victim of cheating in the case. I would have wanted to say AJL's shareholders," Swamy said.
The court will now hear the matter on November 29, the next date of hearing.
All the seven accused in the case -- Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leaders Motilal Vora, 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.
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