Fight me in court, Subramanian Swamy tells Rahul Gandhi

The Subramaniam Swami-Rahul Gandhi spat hot up after the Janata Party leader made allegations against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi of usurping rights to properties worth over 1,600 crore through illegitimate means.

However, neither Rahul Gandhi nor the Congress Party seemed serious enough and refused to take the bait. Instead they asked Subramanian Swamy to go to court if he felt there was merit in the case.

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi's threat to start defamation proceedings, the Janata Party leader has now challenged the Congress general secretary to file a defamation suit against him.

Meanwhile, the Congress Party today said it was for Swamy to prove the allegations of wrongdoings against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul's office is reported to have yesterday sent a letter to Swamy threatening to pursue ''all legal actions'' against him after Swamy revealed that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had formed a Section 25 company ''Young Indian' to acquire Associated Journals Limited, which owned the Herald House, a Rs1,600-crore property in Delhi, among others.

"Our attention has been drawn to your purported press conference of the afternoon of November 1. The allegations made by you are utterly false, entirely baseless and defamatory," the letter said, adding, "Your action of calling a press conference is a motivated attempt for reasons, which one can easily discern."