CHANDIGARH: Senior Congress leader and Member of Parliament from Chandigarh, Manish Tewari, today alleged that the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald case against Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, was an act of "sheer political vendetta" aimed at maligning the party leadership by the ruling party.
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also alleged that the chargesheet was purely a case of “political witch-hunt.”
Speaking to the media today, alongside senior party leaders including Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Capt. Sandeep Sandhu, Tewari said the case would eventually collapse in court, as there was nothing unlawful or illegal involved.
He explained that the Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which was founded by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and other senior leaders and freedom fighters to publish newspapers like National Herald, Navjeevan, and Qaumi Awaz, had run into massive losses, accruing liabilities and outstanding debts of around Rs 90 crores. He said that, as per standard corporate practice to clean up balance sheets, a new company, Young Indian Limited (YIL), was incorporated.
Tewari stated that the Congress paid off the Rs 90 crore debt of AJL over a period of 10 years and subsequently acquired its shares.
These shares were later transferred to Young Indian Limited through a standard corporate practice of debt-equity swap. He emphasised that converting debt into equity is a common legal practice, and this was precisely what happened in the AJL case.
Challenging the complainant’s claim that the move was an attempt to grab AJL’s properties, Tewari clarified that of the six properties owned by AJL across the country, only one was freehold while the other five were on lease. He noted that such leased properties cannot be sold.
Interestingly, he revealed that the trial based on the complaint, which led to the ED’s chargesheet, has effectively been stayed — a stay that was, in fact, sought by the complainant, Subramanian Swamy, from the Delhi High Court.
Tewari further said that even the BJP government is aware that the case has no legal standing and will not withstand scrutiny. However, he added, the government is attempting to create a perception to malign the Congress leadership.
Meanwhile, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, accompanied by Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, State Congress President Pratibha Singh, and others, told the media in Shimla, “By targeting the Congress leadership and the Gandhi family through false and fabricated cases, the BJP government is trying to muzzle the Congress party.”
Claiming that neither the Gandhi family nor other directors of Young Indian Limited received even a single rupee, Gehlot alleged that the BJP government has turned the ED into its election department and is using it for vendetta politics.
