Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, senior Congress leaders, have been accused with criminal conspiracy in the National Herald money laundering case. The charges are part of a new First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing against six individuals, including the Gandhis.
Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are accused in the FIR.
The FIR also mentions Sam Pitroda and three other persons, as well as three companies: Associated Journals Limited (AJL), Young Indian, and Dotex Merchandise Private Limited. It charges a criminal plot to “fraudulently take over the Associated Journals Limited (AJL)”, the parent business of the now-defunct National Herald newspaper.
Dotex Merchandise, an accused Kolkata-based shell firm, gave Rs 1 crore to Young Indian, a non-profit company in which the two Congress politicians owned 76%. It is claimed that through this transaction, Young Indian paid Rs 50 lakh to the Congress and won control of AJL, which had assets worth around Rs 2,000 crore.
The FIR, dated October 3, is based on a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which shared its investigative findings with the Delhi Police.
Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) authorizes the ED to request that any agency register and investigate a scheduled offence.
The FIR emerged a day after the Delhi court postponed its decision in the National Herald case until December 16.
The National Herald case
The National Herald Case began in 2012, when BJP leader Subramanian Swamy filed a case in a local court accusing Congress leaders of cheating and breach of trust in the acquisition of Associated Journals Limited, which published the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Jawaharlal Nehru and other freedom fighters in 1938.
Financial restrictions forced the National Herald to cease publication in 2008. At the time, the parent business had an outstanding debt of Rs 90 crore. To help the AJL get through the crisis, the Congress party extended a loan of Rs 90 crore to it over a 10-year period in around 100 instalments.
However, according to the Congress, neither National Herald nor AJL could repay the debt, therefore it was changed into equity shares. Because the party is not permitted to acquire equity shares, they were assigned to Young Indian, a non-profit organization founded in 2010, according to the Congress.
The Gandhis each control 38% of the corporation, with the remaining shares held by Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Sam Pitroda, and Suman Dubey.
That is how Young Indian became AJL’s majority shareholder, with two Gandhi leaders serving as its directors.
