A Delhi court has granted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi a no-objection-certificate (NOC) for issuance of an “ordinary passport” after he surrendered his diplomatic passport upon his disqualification as an MP. The NOC will be valid for 3 years.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had objected in the court that Mr. Gandhi should not get a passport for 10 years, like other people.
Mr. Gandhi is an accused in the National Herald case in which Mr. Swamy is the complainant. He had surrendered his on March 26. The disqualification was followed after his conviction by a court in Surat in a criminal defamation case over his ‘Modi’ surname remark.
The National Herald case, currently being probed by the Enforcement Directorate on the orders of a trial court, is related to a private complaint filed by Dr. Swamy in 2012 in which he alleged that the assets of Associated Journals Ltd., which published the National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian, in which Sonia Gandhi and her son Mr. Rahul Gandhi owned 38% shares each.
Both Mr. Gandhi and his mother were granted bail in the case on December 19, 2015.
According to sources in the Congress, Mr. Gandhi had a visit planned to the U.S. during which he is expected to address a public rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on June 4. The public rally will cap his week-long tour of the U.S., that includes a talk at Stanford University.
This will be first public rally by Mr. Gandhi in the U.S.
(With inputs from PTI)
