Sonia Gandhi and Rahul have accused the Modi government of vindictiveness in the case.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul are likely to choose to go to jail rather than seek bail in the National Herald case, top Congress sources have told NDTV.
The two top Congress leaders are among seven people summoned by a trial court for a hearing in the case on Saturday.
Top sources in the Congress said that the Gandhis "are not inclined to seek bail and are ready to go to jail if required." Their legal defence in the case will be a close-guarded secret till the appearance in court, they said.
The Congress is also preparing to stage a show of strength in the capital on that day, sources said. It has summoned its chief ministers and other state leaders for a meeting at the party headquarters, 24 Akbar Road, in New Delhi and all its lawmakers from both Houses of Parliament have also been asked to be present. They are likely to stage a march.
The case, filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, accuses the Gandhis and four others of forming a company with the intention of acquiring property belonging to the now defunct newspaper National Herald that was founded by Jawaharlal Nehru. The seventh entity summoned in the case is Young Indian, the company formed by them, in which the Gandhis own 76 per cent shares.
The proposed move to not seek bail is being seen as the Gandhis taking a cue from former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was arrested in 1977 after she lost the general election. The arrest is believed to have resurrected her political fortunes. The Congress, under her, swept the 1980 Lok Sabha elections.
Both Mrs Gandhi and her son have aggressively countered the allegations against them as political vendetta. Mr Gandhi had last week accused the Prime Minister's office of spearheading the alleged vendetta. The BJP on its part has maintained that the party or the government it runs has nothing to do with the case. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wrote in a Facebook post that Mr Swamy filed the case as a private citizen. Mr Swamy had filed the case in 2012 and the next year, merged his party with the BJP.