The Enforcement Directorate has filed a charge sheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others vis-a-vis alleged money laundering in the National Herald case. Sonia is arrayed as first accused in the charge sheet, followed by Rahul and Young India company’s Directors Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey. 

Special Judge Vishal Gogne perused the charge sheet on Tuesday, which was filed on April 9, and posted the matter for further proceedings to April 25.

“The present prosecution complaint shall next be taken up for consideration on the aspect of cognisance before this court on April 25 when the Special Counsel for the ED and IO shall also ensure the production of the case diaries for court perusal,” the judge ordered. 

The charge sheet was filed under Sections 3 (money laundering) and 4 (punishment for money laundering) of Prevention of Money Laundering Act by ED’s Special Public Prosecutor NK Matta.

“Let the complaint be checked and registered. The Ahlmad (court staff) shall ensure that the entire file/documents are properly paginated. The ED is directed to file a soft copy of the complaint and documents in readable/OCR format by the next date,” the court said. 

The Special Judge dealing with the cases of lawmakers also took note of the ED submissions that it will move an application before the district judge for the transfer of a case related to predicate offence — under probe by the CBI for alleged cheating, criminal conspiracy and other offences, based on which the ED had started its investigation in the present matter — from another court to Judge Gogne’s court.

ED’s case stems from a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, in which the trial is on. After the trial court issued summons to Sonia and Rahul in June 2014, Swamy had filed complaints with the Income Tax Department and the ED to probe alleged tax evasion and money-laundering angle in the formation of a new company Young Indian and takeover of Associated Journal Limited, publisher of National Herald newspaper, which has buildings in many cities.

On April 12, ED issued possession notice regarding National Herald’s office buildings in Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow. The predicate offence is required to be tried by the same court which takes cognisance of the offence under Section 3 of PMLA, the Jude said. It is pertinent to mention here that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively.

“Essentially, the two offences viz the predicate offence and the PMLA offence are required to be tried by the same court,” the judge noted. Since the allegations in the present complaint arise from the predicate offence, the file in the predicate offence is required to be called for perusal, the court added.  “However, the power of assignment or transfer of a matter is not vested with this court and is rather the prerogative of the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Rouse Avenue Courts Complex, New Delhi,” the court remarked.

The ED investigation began in 2021 after a Metropolitan Magistrate in Patiala House Courts in Delhi took cognisance of a private complaint filed by Swamy on June 26, 2014. The complaint, the ED said, highlighted a “criminal conspiracy” by prominent political figures, including Congress leaders Sonia and her son Rahul, late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes besides Dubey, Pitroda and private company Young Indian regarding money laundering with respect to a  “fraudulent” takeover of properties valued over `2,000 crore belonging to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL).

“The legal proceedings against the accused have faced challenges but have been upheld by both the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India, allowing the investigation to proceed,” the ED said.

Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul are majority shareholders of Young Indian, with 38 per cent shares each. They were questioned for hours by the ED in this case a few years ago.

 The ED asserted that its investigation has “conclusively” found that Young Indian, a private company ‘beneficially owned’ by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, ‘acquired’ AJL properties worth `2,000 crore for a mere `50 lakh, significantly undervaluing its worth. “Young Indian and AJL properties were used for generation of further proceeds of crime in the form of bogus donations to the tune of `18 crore, bogus advance rent to the tune of `38 crore and bogus advertisements of `29 crore,” said the ED.