The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth Rs 751.90 crore as part of its investigation in a money laundering case against Young Indian, a company linked to Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Young Indian owns the National Herald newspaper.
The central agency claimed that a provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the newspaper's publisher Associated Journals Ltd and its holding company Young Indian.
"Investigation revealed that Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) is in possession of proceeds of crime in the form of immovable properties spread across many cities of India such as Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow to the tune of Rs 661.69 crore and Young Indian (YI) is in possession of proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 90.21 crore in the form of investment in equity shares of AJL," the ED said in a statement.
The agency had recorded the statements of Sonia, Rahul and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge during the course of the investigation.
The ED launched its investigation on the basis of process issued by Delhi’s Metropolitan Magistrate Court after taking cognizane of a private complaint in 2014.
The court had held that seven accused persons including the Young India had prima facie committed offences of criminal breach of trust (under Section 406 of IPC), cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property (under Section 420), dishonest misappropriation of property (under Section 403) and criminal conspiracy (under Section 120B), the agency said.
The court had held that the accused persons hatched a criminal conspiracy to acquire properties worth hundreds of crores of the AJL through a special purpose vehicle—the Young Indian.
“M/s AJL was given land on concessional rates in various cities of India for the purpose of publishing newspapers. AJL closed its publishing operations in 2008 and started using the properties for commercial purposes,” the ED said.
It said the AJL had to repay a loan of Rs 90.21 crore to All India Congress Committee (AICC). However, the AICC treated the said loan as non-recoverable from the AJL and sold it for Rs 50 lakh to a newly incorporated company, Young Indian.
“By their action, the shareholders of AJL as well as donors of Congress Party were cheated by the office bearers of AJL and Congress Party,” the agency claimed in its statement.
The ED further claimed that after purchasing the loan of Rs 90.21 crore from the AICC, the Young Indian demanded either repayment of loan or allotment of equity shares of the AJL to it. AJL held an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) and passed a resolution to increase share capital and issue fresh shares worth Rs 90.21 crore to the Young Indian.
“With this fresh allotment of shares, shareholding of more than 1,000 shareholders was reduced to a mere 1 per cent and AJL became subsidiary company of YI. YI also took control over properties of AJL,” it said.
