National Herald case: ED chargesheets Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi
The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others accusing them of allegedly laundering Rs 988 crore in the National Herald case
NEW DELHI — The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against
Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others accusing them of
allegedly laundering Rs 988 crore in the National Herald case.
Special judge Vishal Gogne examined the chargesheet,
which was filed on April 9, on the point of cognisance and posted the matter
for further proceedings on April 25.
The chargesheet also names Congress leader Sam Pitroda
and Suman Dubey as accused.
Sources said the other accused include Young Indian,
Dotex Merchandise Pvt Ltd and Sunil Bhandari.
"The present prosecution complaint shall next be
taken up for consideration on the aspect of cognisance before this court on
April 25, 2025 when the special counsel for the ED and IO shall also ensure the
production of the case diaries for perusal by the court," the judge said.
The chargesheet was filed under Sections 3 (money
laundering) and 4 (punishment for money laundering) of Prevention of Money
Laundering Act by ED's special public prosecutor N K Matta.
"Let the complaint be checked and registered. The
Ahlmad (court staff) shall ensure that the entire file/documents are properly
paginated. The ED is directed to file a soft copy of the complaint and
documents in readable/OCR format by the next date," the judge said.
The special court dealing with the cases of lawmakers
noted the submission of the ED, which would be moving an application before the
district judge for the transfer of the case related to the predicate offence
for alleged cheating, criminal conspiracy and other offences, based on which
the ED had started its investigation in the present matter, from another court
to Judge Gogne's court.
The predicate offence is required to be tried by the same
court which takes cognisance of the offence under Section 3 PMLA, the jude
said, and Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were members of Rajya Sabha and Lok
Sabha respectively.
"Essentially, the two offences viz the predicate
offence and the PMLA offence are required to be tried by the same court,"
the judge said.
Since the allegations in the present complaint were
arising from the predicate offence, the file in the predicate offence were
required to be called for perusal, the court added.
"However, the power of assignment or transfer of a
matter is not vested with this court and is rather the prerogative of the
Principal District & Sessions Judge, Rouse Avenue Courts Complex, New
Delhi," the court pointed out.
The Enforcement Directorate Saturday said it has served
notices to take possession of immovable assets worth Rs 661 crore that it had
attached as part of a money laundering probe linked to Congress-controlled
National Herald newspaper and the Associated Journals Limited (AJL).
The ED investigation began in 2021 after a metropolitan
magistrate in Patiala House courts in Delhi took cognisance of a private
complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on June 26, 2014.
The complaint, the ED said, highlighted a "criminal
conspiracy" by several prominent political figures, including the first
family of the Congress party led by Sonia, her MP son Rahul, late Congress
leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes aside from Dubey, Pitroda and a
private company Young Indian for their alleged involvement in money laundering
in relation to the fraudulent takeover of properties valued over Rs 2,000 crore
belonging to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL).
"The legal proceedings against the accused have
faced challenges but have been upheld by both the Delhi High Court and the
Supreme Court of India, allowing the investigation to proceed," the ED
said.
AJL is the publisher of the National Herald news platform
(newspaper and web portal), owned by Young Indian Private Limited.
Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul are majority
shareholders of Young Indian with 38 per cent shares held by each one of them.
They were questioned for hours by the ED in this case a few years ago.
The ED claimed its investigation has
"conclusively" found that Young Indian, a private company
"beneficially owned" by Sonia and Rahul, "acquired" AJL
properties worth Rs 2,000 crore for a mere Rs 50 lakh, significantly undervaluing
its worth.
"Young Indian and AJL properties were used for
generation of further proceeds of crime in the form of bogus donations to the
tune of Rs 18 crore, bogus advance rent to the tune of Rs 38 crore and bogus
advertisements of Rs 29 crore," the ED has alleged.
National Herald case: ED chargesheets Congress leaders Sonia
