While the Congress is on a sticky wicket politically, the number of prominent Congress leaders out on bail might soon be more than the number of Congress leaders they have inside parliament.
While the Congress is on a sticky wicket politically, the number of prominent Congress leaders out on bail might soon be more than the number of Congress leaders they have inside parliament.
The latest to join the list is P Chidambaram though he has been delayed bail till now with the Supreme Court set to hear his petition on Friday.
The list includes interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Congress president Rahul, former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh and Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor.
Here’s a list of prominent Cong leaders out on bail and their alleged crimes:
1. Sonia Gandhi
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Sonia Gandhi was granted bail in the National Herald case in 2015 along with Rahul Gandhi. Others booked in the case included Oscar Fernandes, Motilal Vora and Suman Dubey.
What’s the case?
The income tax probe against the Congress leaders has arisen from the investigation into the private criminal complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy before a trial court in connection with the National Herald case, in which the trio are out on bail.Sonia and Rahul were granted bail in the case by the trial court on December 19, 2015.
A tax evasion petition (TEP) was also addressed to the finance minister by Swamy.
In the complaint before the trial court, Sonia, Rahul and others have been accused of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying just Rs 50 lakh, through which Young Indian (YI), the not-for-profit organisation, had obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that the Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) owed to the Congress party.
2. Rahul Gandhi
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Along with the National Herald Case, Rahul Gandhi has been granted bail in several defamation cases filed against him.
A defamation case was lodged by RSS activist in a Mumbai magistrate court for linking journalist Gauri Lankesh’s death to ‘RSS ideology’. He faces another defamation case in Bhiwandi for blaming the Sangh for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.
He is also facing cases in Patna and Gujarat. Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi had filed a case against him in Patna for calling the Modi surname ‘one of thieves’ while referring to PM Modi, Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi. A similar case was also filed in Gujarat by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi.
3. Karti Chidambaram
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While P Chidambaram was denied bail, his son Karti is out on bail. The Chidambarams face a host of cases including the Aircel-Maxis scam, the INX Media scam, land-grabbing cases and the Air Asia scam. Karti was arrested in Feb 2018 in the INX Media Case.
Based on the FIR, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case against him.
Chidambaram's son Karti has also been named in the two cases. He was arrested on February 28, 2018 by the CBI and was later released on bail. The ED had attached properties belonging to him.
On July 4, a Delhi court had allowed Indrani Mukerjea, the former head of the INX Media, to turn an approver in the CBI case.
The agency had submitted that it has come across evidence in the form of conversations which only Indrani Mukerjea is privy to and will help consolidate the case.
4. Shashi Tharoor
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Cong leader Shashi Tharoor, one of the most articulate politicians on Twitter was granted bail in July 2018 over his wife's death in which the Delhi Police chargesheet had named him as an accused.
The counsel for Sunanda Pushkar on Tuesday told a Delhi court that prior to her death, she was suffering from mental agony following a scuffle with her husband, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.
Alluding to the post-mortem report, Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava submitted before the special CBI court Judge Ajay Kumar that Pushkar had injury marks on various parts of her body, which were at least 12 hours to four days old.
The counsel read out the statement of Pushkar's friend Nalini, in which she had narrated Tharoor's relationship with a woman named Tarar.
"I got a call from Sunanda who was sobbing. She had found some messages exchanged between Tarar and Tharoor," he said, adding that an e-mail written by Tharoor to Tarar addressing her as "my darlingest" has also been found.
Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in the city on the night of January 17, 2014.
Following her murder, Tharoor was charged under sections 498-A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
Tharoor is also out on bail over a remark he had made at the Bengaluru Literature Fest where he compared PM Modi with a 'scorpion sitting on a Shiva Linga'.
5. Raj Babbar, Digvijaya Singh, Virbhadra Singh
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Digvijaya Singh
Digvijaya Singh, who lost the 2019 election from Bhopal to terror-accused Sadhvi Pragya, was granted bail in 2016 after a criminal defamation case was filed against him by a BJP leader. Singh had called Ramdev of a ‘criminal mentality’.
Raj Babbar
Babbar was granted bail in April 2019 for a criminal case filed against him in 2015 in Lucknow. Babbar had been accused of defying prohibitor orders and proceeding to gherao the Assembly.
Virbhadra Singh
Former HP CM Virbhadra Singh was granted bail in March 2018 after being accused in a money laundering case .
