YI told to deposit ₹10 cr in National Herald case

Delhi high court on Monday directed Young Indian Pvt Ltd, in which Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are major stakeholders, to deposit ~10 crore in the ~249.15 crore income tax proceedings against it.

A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla directed the company -- earlier summoned along with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as an accused by a trial court in the National Herald misappropriation of assets case -to deposit half the amount with the Income Tax department before March 31 and the remaining by April 15.

The high court said subject to deposit of the amount, the tax authorities shall not enforce the demand of Rs 249.15 crore made on the company for the assessment year 2011-12.

The high court also sought the I-T department’s response on Young Indian’s (YI) plea challenging the demand and the proceedings emanating from it and listed the matter for further hearing on April 24.

YI, which was incorporated in November 2010 with a capital of ~50 lakh, had acquired almost all the shareholding of Associated Journal Ltd (AJL), the owner of the National Herald newspaper.

Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for YI, told the court that it will have extreme difficulty in raising ~10 crore and sought that the amount be fixed at ~7.5 crore. PTI

NEWDELHI:The