Delhi HC to hear predicate offence matter

The Delhi High Court will hear a plea on Monday filed by Dr Subramanian Swamy relating to the predicate offence in the Congress-linked National Herald case.

The hearing assumes significance because the trial in the predicate offence, which forms the basis of a money laundering probe by the ED in the said case, has been hanging fire for the past four years.

People in the know told ET that Swamy is likely to withdraw his appeal. When contacted, Swamy's lawyer Satya Sabharwal told ET, "We are exploring options as to how to expand the list of documents we want to summon before the court under section 244 CrPC."


The stay was ordered by the Delhi HC on February 22, 2021, after Swamy, the appellant and complainant in the original case, had filed an appeal in the HC against an order passed by the trial court on February 11, 2021. Vide the said order, the trial court had turned down an application moved by Swamy seeking to summon certain witnesses to prove documents in the case. The HC had on February 22, 2021, stayed "the proceedings before the trial court against the petitioner (Swamy)".

This put the brakes on the trial in the predicate offence in the lower court. As first reported by ET in April this year, since March 16, 2021, till March 1 this year, the case in trial court was adjourned 18 times.

On Monday, Swamy's plea is coming up for a resumed hearing. Significantly, the hearing comes a day before a special PMLA court is to pronounce its verdict on whether to take cognisance of a prosecution complaint filed by the ED against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and five others for their alleged involvement in the National Herald newspaper case.

The trial in the main case (predicate offence) will resume if Swamy withdraws his petition from the high court on Monday.