'Swamy's claim part of game to mislead people'

The Congress yesterday challenged Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy to prove his allegations of wrongdoing against party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi.

On the offensive: Subramanian Swamy had said that a company allegedly floated by Rahul and Sonia Gandhi had done a "sham and bogus" deal to "grab the Rs 1,600 crore worth Herald House in New Delhi." File pic

"We don't take him (Swamy) seriously...we are not bound to answer the bland charges...It is for Swamy to go to the court if he feels any income tax law has been violated," Congress spokesperson PC Chacko said. "We want to see whether Swamy will sue the Congress leaders," he said. "We are ready to face it legally."

Swamy on Thursday said a company allegedly floated by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had done a "sham and bogus" deal to "grab the Rs 1,600 crore worth Herald House" in the national capital and other properties of the group. He also demanded a CBI probe.

Chacko said Rahul Gandhi's office denied the charges on Thursday as baseless and had issued a legal notice to Swamy for making the allegations.

"Rahul Gandhi's letter amounts to a legal notice," said Chacko. "If there is a violation of any income tax law, we challenge Swamy to prove it."

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari also dismissed the charges. "The charges are baseless... The only intent behind them seems to be to tar people with a dark brush," said Tewari. He added that the charges deserved to be rebutted point by point.

While Chacko said the charges were "part of a game to mislead the people", Tewari said "the culture of shoot and scoot after leveling allegations" would vitiate the political discourse in the long run.