Anand Sharma, spokesman of the Congress party, dismissed the charges of Dr Subramanian Swamy of the Janata Party against Sonia Gandhi and termed them as malicious and totally false. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Sharma said the country knows the credentials of Dr Swamy and hence any one who believes him has come to grief.

"He can invent, distort and magnify the falsehood. We rubbish the charges levelled by him. He has his own agenda. He was first after J Jayalalithaa, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, and then made up with her. When she did not nominate him for Lok Sabha he trained his guns on her. He has in the past made charges against so many individuals and the courts had rejected them," Sharma said.

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Dr Swamy in his press conference had alleged that Sonia was one of the beneficiaries of the food for oil scam. "She received $84 million; $50 million directly and $30 million was diverted to her by Natwar Singh and this money is stashed away in the Swiss bank account, which is operated by her man friday Vincent George's brother. She also has accounts in other places as well. I have already given the documentary evidence to the Central Bureau of Investigation. A letter of acknowledgement from CBI anti-corruption unit dated December 1, 2005 is enclosed in the annexure," he alleged.

When asked what he proposed to do if the CBI did not take up the matter, he said, "I will file a public interest litigation either in the high court or Supreme Court."

When asked why he did not want to give this evidence to the Justice R S Pathak committee, he said, "This committee now has powers. Attempts are being made to make Natwar Singh a scapegoat. Sonia should resign as the chairperson of the National Advisory Council of the United Progressive Alliance, which is equal to a Cabinet minister," he said.