Congress terms move a ‘state-sponsored crime’ and alleges political vendetta by BJP
NEW DELHI: In a concerted action against the Gandhi family, the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday chargesheeted Congress MPs Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi in connection with the National Herald case, triggering a war of words between the Opposition party and the BJP.
The ED’s move came a day after the agency initiated the process to attach assets worth about Rs 700 crore belonging to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL).
The prosecution complaint (chargesheet in police parlance) highlighted a “criminal conspiracy” by several prominent political figures, including the first family of the Congress led by Mrs Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, besides Sam Pitroda and a private company, Young Indian, for money-laundering in relation to the fraudulent takeover of properties valued over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to AJL.
The Congress dubbed the seizure of National Herald’s assets a “state-sponsored crime” masquerading as rule of law. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the chargesheet against the Gandhis and the others was nothing but politics of vendetta and intimidation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He asserted the Congress and its leadership will not be silenced.
Hitting back at the Congress, the BJP said that those who indulged in corruption and loot of public property will now have to pay back. The ruling party also accused the Congress leaders of playing the "victim card" after indulging in "loot" of public money.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonwalla slammed the Opposition party for calling the ED action vendetta politics, pointing out that proceedings in the case began on the order of the court. “Do they mean the court has taken vindictive action against them,” he asked.
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.
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 Suman Dubey as accused persons in the money laundering case.
The judge said: "The present prosecution complaint shall next be taken up for consideration on the aspect of cognisance before this court on April 25, 2025, when special counsel for the ED and IO shall also ensure the production of the case diaries for perusal by the court.”
The chargesheet was filed under Sections 3 (money laundering) and 4 (punishment for money laundering) of Prevention of Money Laundering Act by ED 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 judge dealing with the cases of lawmakers also noted the submission of the ED, which said it will be moving an application before the district judge for the transfer of the case related to the predicate offence, being probed by the CBI 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 judge said, and Mrs Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are 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 complaint arose from the predicate offence, the file in the predicate offence is 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 ED said: "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."
AJL is the publisher of the National Herald news platform (newspaper and web portal), owned by Young Indian Private Limited.
Mrs Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi 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 Mrs Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, "acquired" AJL properties worth Rs 2,000 crore for Rs 50 lakh, significantly undervaluing its worth.
"Young Indian and AJL properties were used for the generation of further proceeds of crime in the form of bogus donations to the tune of Rs 18 crores, bogus advance rent to the tune of `38 crores and bogus advertisements of Rs 29 crores," the ED has alleged.
