New Delhi: Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are facing the heat in the National Herald case, having been accused of fraudulent takeover of properties worth over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the newspaper.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a chargesheet in April against Sonia, Rahul Gandhi, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes and a private company Young Indian, charging them of conspiracy and money-laundering.
In a hearing on the case in the court of Special CBI Judge Vishal Gogne, Sonia said through her counsel that the ED has woken up suddenly after doing nothing for 11 years, between 2010 and 2021.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Sonia and Rahul, put forward his rebuttal after Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, concluded his arguments for ED on the cognisance of the chargesheet filed in the case.
Singhvi said that ED’s money-laundering case is truly “strange” and “unprecedented” as well.
“It is alleged that this is a case of money laundering, without any money and property being moved, without any use or projection of property,” Singhvi said.
“Associated Journals Limited, which published the now-defunct National Herald newspaper, has had properties across India for decades… ownership of none of the properties has been changed,” Singhvi submitted.
ED’s allegation is that the Gandhis held the majority 76 per cent shares in Young Indian, which fraudulently usurped assets of AJL, in exchange for a Rs 90-crore loan.
Singhvi said that the exercise was undertaken to make AJL debt-free.
“Every company is entitled under law and does, every day, make their companies get free by a variety of instruments. So you take away the debt and assign it to another entity, so this company becomes debt free,” Singhvi argued.
He further said that Young Indian was a not-for-profit company. “Means it cannot give dividends, it cannot give perks, it cannot give salaries, it cannot give those bonuses. It can give nothing.”
The ED did not do anything for several years before picking up a private complaint, Singhvi argued on Sonia’s behalf.
“They are, obviously people associated with the Congress. To have the National Herald in a body not associated with the Congress would be worse than having Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark,” he said.
On July 3, Raju argued on the point of the chargesheet’s cognisance, saying the Gandhis were the “beneficial owners” of Young Indian and acquired its total control after the death of other shareholders.
ED’s chargesheet against the Gandhis and others was filed under Sections 3 (money laundering) and 4 (punishment for money laundering) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
