Team News Riveting
New Delhi, April 15
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against Congress MPs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi besides party’s overseas unit chief and Sam Pitroda in the alleged National Herald money laundering case.
A special court posted April 25 as the next hearing date. “The present prosecution complaint shall next be taken up for consideration, on the aspect of cognisance… when Special Counsel for the ED and the Investigating Officer shall also ensure production of the case diaries for perusal by the court,” special judge Vishal Gogne said.
This is the first time a chargesheet has been filed against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
On Saturday, the ED had issued notices to take possession of immovable assets worth Rs 661 crore. It had been attached in November 2023 to the investigation into allegations of money laundering against Congress-controlled Associated Journals Limited or AJL.
The notices, which sought vacation of the premises, affixed at properties in Delhi, Mumbai’s Bandra area, and the AJL building on Bisheshwar Nath Road in Lucknow.
Among these are the iconic National Herald House on Delhi’s Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.
The ED began its investigation in 2021. This was on the basis of a June 2014 order from Delhi’s Patiala House court based on a private complaint filed by the BJP’s Subramanian Swamy.
Swamy claimed a criminal conspiracy by prominent Congress leaders, including Mrs Gandhi, Mr Gandhi and others, and a company, Young Indian Pvt Ltd, to launder money from the fraudulent takeover of properties belonging to AJL and valued at over Rs 2,000 crore.
The National Herald is a newspaper published by AJL and owned by Young Indian. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are majority shareholders in the latter, with 38 per cent shares allotted to each.
Meanwhile, the chargesheet was filed hours after businessman Robert Vadra, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s husband and Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law, was questioned by the probe agency over money laundering allegations linked to a real estate deal in Haryana.
The case involving Vadra is about the purchase of land in Haryana – by his company, Skylight Hospitality – in 2008 for Rs 7.5 crore. He then got a permit to develop a housing society and the land value spiked. He then sold it to real estate developers DLF for Rs 58 crore.
