National Herald case: ED chargesheets Sonia, Rahul; Congress says ‘vendetta politics’

NEW DELHI, April 15: The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and others before a special court here in the National Herald case accusing them of allegedly laundering Rs 988 crore.
The prosecution complaint filed on April 9 under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) named Sonia Gandhi, a former Congress president, as the accused no 1, and her son and MP Rahul Gandhi, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, as the accused no 2.
The Congress on Tuesday alleged the action by the Enforcement Directorate(ED) against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi was “vendetta politics” and that seizing of assets in the case was a “state-sponsored crime masquerading as the rule of law”.
As the ED move triggered a political slugfest, the BJP said the proceedings in the case began with the order of the court.
A “criminal conspiracy” was carried out by Congress leaders to “usurp” properties worth Rs 2,000 crore of its public company Associated Journals Limited(AJL) by transferring 99 per cent shares to their private company named Young Indian for just Rs 50 lakh, a firm where Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are the majority shareholders, the ED is learnt to have said in its chargesheet. AJL is the publisher of the Congress-controlled National Herald news platform (newspaper and web portal) and it is owned by Young Indian Private Limited.
Sources told PTI that the ED has pegged the “proceeds of crime” in the money laundering case at Rs 988 crore and the current market value of the linked assets at Rs 5,000 crore.
Special judge Vishal Gogne examined the chargesheet on the point of cognisance and posted the matter for further proceedings on April 25.
The other accused named are Congress party associates Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, two companies Young Indian and Dotex Merchandise Pvt Ltd and Sunil Bhandari (of Dotex Merchandise).
The ED has filed the chargesheet under sections 44 and 45 of the PMLA for “commission of offence of money laundering” as defined under section 3 of the Act along with section 70 (offences by companies) seeking to establish “vicarious liability” of the office bearers and executives of the firm. It has sought punishment against the accused under section 4 of PMLA where punishment can extend up to seven years. Judge Gogne, who deals with cases relating to 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 offence from another court to his court. The ED had started its investigation in the present matter based on the case related to the predicate offence.
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 Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively. 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. Sonia 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 Sonia and Rahul, “acquired” AJL properties worth Rs 2,000 crore for a mere Rs 50 lakh, significantly undervaluing its worth.