New Delhi: After almost a day of political drama, the hearing in the National Herald case in which Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul were summoned by the Patiala House court took just about five minutes with both of them getting bail. The court also granted bail to all the other accused except Sam Pitroda who was not present due to ill health.
The others who have been granted bail by Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen include senior Congress leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey.
The petitioner and Bharatiya Janata party leader Subramanian Swamy had asked for travel restrictions to be placed on the accused but the judge declined to do say observing that Sonia and Rahul were unlikely to flee. "Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are reputed person having deep political grass roots. There is no apprehension that they will flee," the court remarked.
Sonia and Rahul were granted bail without any riders and both were asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000. Senior Congress leader AK Antony signed the surety for Sonia while Priyanka Gandhi Vadra did the same for Rahul.
The court fixed the next date of hearing on February 20, 2016 at 2 PM and also asked Pitroda to be present for the same.
Earlier, a large number of senior leaders reached the court which was turned into a heavily guarded fortress with almost 5,000 security personnel being deployed. The galaxy of Congress leaders at the court included former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabu Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Shiela Dikshit, Kumari Selja, Ashwini Kumar, AK Antony, Meira Kumar and Ambika Soni
Sonia and her son reached the Patiala House court to appear in the case of cheating, criminal breach of trust and other charges filed by Swamy.
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