Sonia-Rahul Gandhi earned Rs 142 crore from crime
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday told the Rouse Avenue Court that Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have allegedly benefited from criminal income of Rs 142 crore in the National Herald Money Laundering case. The court has issued notice to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Sam Pitroda and others in this case. ED’s special lawyer Joheb Hussain argued that any property obtained directly or indirectly through criminal activity is eligible as the income of the offense. This includes not only assets from scheduled offenses, but also includes income related to those assets.
ED’s special lawyer Joheb Hussain claimed that the income of Rs 142 crore received by the accused should be considered as the income of crime. He said that Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, who collectively holds 76% stake in Young Indian, were involved in the Breach of Trust. According to the ED, Young Indian acquired assets worth Rs 90.25 crore from Associated Journal Limited (AJL) for just Rs 50 lakh.
ED had filed a charge sheet
In its charge sheet filed last month, the ED accused Sonia, Rahul and many others of money laundering of Rs 988 crore. This charge sheet was filed in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court under several sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). In the charge sheet, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been made the accused number 1, while his son Rahul Gandhi, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has been made accused No. 2.
ED filed charge sheet
In its charge sheet, the Central Agency has resorted to the 2017 evaluation order of the Income Tax Department to strengthen its allegations. It claimed that prominent members of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), along with the chief officials of Associated Journal Limited (AJL) and Young Indian, hatched a criminal conspiracy to control the properties of AJL, which is estimated to be around Rs 2,000 crore. Significantly, AJL is a non-list-bound public company, historically associated with the publication of the National Herald newspaper.
What is National Herald Case
The National Herald newspaper was founded in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. This newspaper became the mouthpiece of the Congress party during the freedom struggle. It was published by Associated Journal Limited i.e. AJL, which was established in 1937. AJL had many very expensive properties in Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow and other cities, which he got on government concessions. Over time, the publication of the newspaper stopped in 2008 due to financial difficulties and deficit. At that time, the Congress party had a debt of more than Rs 90 crore on AJL. Senior BJP leader and lawyer Subramanian Swamy filed a complaint against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders in a Delhi court. Swamy alleged that the Gandhi family fraudulently acquired AJL properties through a company called Young Indian Private Limited (Yil). According to him, the entire process was illegal and its purpose was to capture property worth more than Rs 2000 crore.
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