Congress leader Rahul Gandhi appeared before the Enforcement Directorate, honouring the summons in the National Herald money laundering case. What is the case all about?
The National Herald saga
In 2012, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy filed a case in a trial court in Delhi accusing Congress leaders including the Gandhis of cheating and breach of trust and using malicious means to acquire multi-crore worth properties owned by AJL, publishers of National Herald. He accused the Congress leaders illegally acquired assets of the newspaper.
The National Herald was the Congress party's mouthpiece and it was founded in 1938 by great grandfather of Rahul Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru. The paper was funded by Congress veterans through Associate Journals Limited. AJL got shutdown in 2008 and it owed a loan of Rs 90 crore to the Congress party.
In 2010, the Congress leaders formed a company named Young Indian with Sonia and Rahul each owning 38 per cent stake and remaining stake was owned by Congress veterans Oscar Fernandes and Motilal Vora. The party assigned the Rs 90 crore debt to Young Indian for Rs 50 lakh and it wrote off the remaining amount. In lieu of the debt, AJL transferred a large chunk of its shares to Young Indian.
That gave Young Indian control of AJL's prime properties, worth Rs 2,000 to 5,000 crore in major cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Lucknow, Indore, Patna and Panchkula, the BJP leader alleged. However, the Congress claimed that Young Indian was a not-for-profit company and it can not pay dividends to its shareholders and directors.
In April this year, former Union Minister Pawan Bansal, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge were questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in relation with the case as the latter was principal officer of AJL and former, a principal officer in Young Indian.
In the case taken under PMLA Act, the ED charged that most of the properties of AJL in major cities were allotted by Central and State government for non-profit purposes. The Gandhis tried to profit from these properties by devising a scheme wherein shares of AJL was allotted to Young Indian, the agency alleged. Congress leaders called it a case of political vendetta.
The ED began initial probe in the case in 2014, to probe if there were any money laundering involved in the deal. In 2016, the Supreme Court granted exemption to the accused in the case from personal appearance in Court however denied to quash proceedings against them. In 2018, Centre decided to end perpetual lease and evict AJL from Herald House citing that AJL was no longer involved in publication, the purpose for which the property was leased to them.
In 2019, ED attached property worth Rs.64 Crore and the agency attached Rs.16.38 Crore worth property of AJL at Mumbai in 2020.