NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has submitted a prosecution complaint against senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in a Delhi court, intensifying the scrutiny over the alleged money laundering tied to the National Herald case.
Also named in the chargesheet are the party’s Overseas Department Chief Sam Pitroda, veteran journalist Suman Dubey and several others. The case revolves around financial transactions linked to the now-defunct National Herald newspaper and its parent company.
Justice Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Court has slated 25 April as the date to consider whether to take cognisance of the complaint.
In the order on Tuesday, the court noted that a fresh prosecution complaint under sections 44 and 45 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 for commission of offence of money laundering as defined under section 3 read with section 70 and punishable under section 4 of PMLA, 2002 filed by the ED, has been received by way of assignment.
“Let the complaint be checked and registered. The ED is directed to file a soft copy of the complaint and documents in readable/OCR format by the next date,” the court remarked.
The court further said that Counsel for the ED apprised that the predicate offence vide complaint case under sections 403, 406 & 420 read with section 120(B) of IPC, 1860 is presently under trial before the court of Rouse Avenue Courts, New Delhi.
Last week, the ED had issued notices to take possession of immovable assets valued at Rs 661 crore that were previously attached as part of a money laundering investigation related to the Congress-linked National Herald newspaper and Associated Journals Limited (AJL).
The Congress had earlier termed the investigation “petty vendetta tactics” and dubbed the ED a “coalition partner” of the BJP.
The ED investigation began in 2021 after the Metropolitan Magistrate at 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 Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, apart from late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes and also Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and a private company Young Indian for alleged involvement in a money laundering scheme related to the fraudulent takeover of properties valued over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to the 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) and it is owned by Young Indian Private Limited.
Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are majority shareholders of Young Indian with 38 per cent shares held by each of them. They were questioned for hours by the ED in this case a few years back.
The ED claimed its investigation has “conclusively found” that Young Indian, a private company "beneficially owned" by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, “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.
