ED moves HC against dismissal of its case against Sonia, Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate Friday moved Delhi high court challenging a trial court's Dec 16 order that dismissed its prosecution complaint (equivalent to a police chargesheet) against Congress MPs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and others, in the National Herald laundering case. The criminal revision petition is likely to be listed for hearing next week.

ED contended that Special Judge Vishal Gogne overlooked critical evidence of money laundering while holding that cognizance of the agency's complaint in the case was "impermissible in law" since it was based on a private complaint filed by BJP's Subramanian Swamy and not on any FIR for an offence listed in the schedule to Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).




The trial court observed that despite receiving Swamy's complaint and consequent summoning order in 2014, CBI had refrained from registering an FIR. "However, ED went ahead with recording an ECIR relating to money laundering on June 30, 2021, when no FIR (with CBI or any other law enforcement agency) existed in relation to the scheduled offence," the court added.

The agency has accused Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, along with late Congress functionaries Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, as well as Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, and a private company, Young Indian Private Ltd. (YIL), in which Sonia and Rahul are majority shareholders, of conspiracy and money laundering.

ED alleged that they acquired properties worth Rs 2,000 crore belonging to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which publishes National Herald newspaper. In 2010, YIL acquired AJL's debts from Congress for Rs 50 lakh, thereby taking control of AJL's properties.

In 2014, ED began probing the financial transactions among Congress, AJL, and YIL, and accused Sonia, Rahul, and other Congress functionaries of conspiring to usurp AJL's assets.

(With agency inputs)
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