Furious India opposition Congress blasts Gandhi summons

India's opposition Congress will protest against a court summons of leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi over allegations they misused funds from a newspaper once run by the family, a party member said Thursday.

The mother-son duo of the famed Nehru-Gandhi dynasty are due to appear in a New Delhi court Saturday after a politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party filed a petition accusing them of illegally acquiring the National Herald's assets.

Both Gandhis deny Subramanian Swamy's claims and have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of waging a "political vendetta", with members of Congress and their allies throwing parliament into chaos several times last week in protest at the case. 

"There will definitely be protests... The (BJP) government in the state (of Maharashtra) is also indulging in witch hunts," Mumbai-based Congress spokesman Sachin Sawant told AFP.

In a pre-emptive move, Swamy wrote to Modi Thursday requesting extra police powers for the weekend hearing, citing "a high probability of law and order being disturbed".  

Sonia Gandhi plans to lead a march to the court on the day, he said in the letter, posted on Twitter.

Swamy first filed the case against the Congress bosses in 2001, accusing them of illegally acquiring the now-defunct newspaper's assets after buying its publisher through a new private company, Young Indian, that borrowed party funds.

He alleged that the Gandhis aimed to grab property worth $332 million owned by the publishing firm, Associated Journals, using fraudulent papers.

Both Gandhis are directors of Young Indian, owning a 76 percent stake in it and the remaining shares are owned by four other Congress members, who have also been summoned to court.

The paper was launched by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Sonia Gandhi, widow of Nehru's grandson Rajiv, later became the chief patron of the trust that ran it.

It first published from the northern city of Lucknow in 1938 and played a prominent role promoting nationalist sentiment before India's independence from Britain in 1947.

But dogged by bad management, poor circulation and falling revenue, Sonia Gandhi finally decided to close the publication in 2008.