New Delhi: The Adjudicating Authority of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002, has given the nod for the provisional attachment of assets worth Rs 750 crore of Congress party-held Associated Journals Ltd that was later acquired by Young India, a company under majority control of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
In November 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached immovable assets and equity shares worth about Rs 752 crore as part of its ongoing money laundering probe against the National Herald newspaper and associated companies.
On Wednesday, upholding the ED’s move, the adjudicating authority said in its order: “….the complainant has sufficient grounds to believe that the attached properties are directly or indirectly involved in the proceeds of crime and are likely intended to be concealed, transferred or dealt with in a manner that would obstruct the proceedings related to the confiscation of such proceeds.” It also called the decision of the ED Deputy Director ‘prima facie sustainable’.
The adjudicating authority said in its order that there is prima facie reason to believe that the attached assets are ‘proceeds of crime’ as defined under section 2(1)(u) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, which renders them liable to confirmation of attachment under section 8(3) of the said Act. The attachment order getting upheld could impact the National Herald’s office premises at ITO in Delhi, the Nehru Bhawan at Mall Avenue near Kaiserbagh in Lucknow and the Herald House in Mumbai.
Congress had called the ED’s decision ‘vendetta politics ‘ when the attachment order came on the eve of assembly elections in five states.
The probe in the case began after a complaint of cheating and criminal conspiracy by Subramanyam Swamy. The ED has already examined Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Malikarjun Kharge in this case.
The ED had said: “The accused persons hatched a criminal conspiracy to acquire properties worth hundreds of crores of AJL through a special purpose vehicle – Young Indian. AJL was given land on concessional rates in various cities of India for the purpose of publishing newspapers.”
