Rahul Gandhi, Mother Sonia Charged With Criminal Conspiracy In National Herald Case

Senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi have been charged with criminal conspiracy in the National Herald money laundering case. The charges are part of a fresh First Information Report (FIR) filed against six people, including the Gandhis by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police.

Accused In FIR

The FIR also names Sam Pitroda, Suman Dubey, Sunil Bhandari and an unknown individual, along with three companies - Associated Journals Limited (AJL), Young Indian, and Dotex Merchandise Private Limited. It alleges a criminal conspiracy to "fraudulently take over the Associated Journals Limited (AJL)", the parent company of the now-defunct National Herald newspaper.

Dotex Merchandise, an alleged Kolkata-based shell company, provided Rs 1 crore to Young Indian, a not-for-profit company in which the two Congress leaders held 76 per cent shareholding. It is alleged that through this transaction, Young Indian paid Rs 50 lakh to the Congress and gained control of AJL, which had assets worth approximately Rs 2,000 crore.

The FIR, dated October 3, is based on a complaint from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has shared its investigation report with the Delhi Police.

Under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED can ask any agency to register and probe a scheduled offence.

The FIR surfaced a day after the Delhi court deferred the pronouncement of its decision in the National Herald case to December 16.

National Herald Case

The National Herald Case dates back to 2012 when BJP leader Subramanian Swamy filed a case in a local court, alleging Congress leaders of being involved in cheating and breach of trust in the acquisition of the Associated Journals Limited, which published the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Jawaharlal Nehru and other freedom fighters in 1938.

The National Herald went out of print in 2008 due to financial constraints. At that time, the parent company had an unpaid debt of Rs 90 crore. In order to help AJL tide over the crisis, the Congress party gave a loan of Rs 90 crore to it over a period of 10 years in about 100 instalments.

But, according to the Congress, neither National Herald nor AJL could repay the loan, hence, it was converted into equity shares. Since the party cannot own equity shares, they were allotted to Young Indian, a not-for-profit company incorporated in 2010, the Congress said.

The Gandhis own 38 per cent shares each in the company and the remaining shares are held by Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey.

And that is how Young Indian became the majority shareholder of AJL, with two Gandhi leaders as its directors.