Cong revived AJL as it was voice of freedom movement: Sonia

Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi illegally obtained the underlying assets of Associates Journals Limited (AJL), which ran the National Herald newspaper, to get control of its properties and acquired around ₹142 crores as direct proceeds of crime, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told a Delhi court on Wednesday.

- Arnabjit Sur

NEW DELHI:

The federal agency said a prima facie case of money laundering was made out against the Gandhis and others. Special judge Vishal Gogne asked ED if the Congress was made a party to the case as its name was mentioned at several places in the charge sheet.

But ED special counsel Zoheb Hossain said the Congress was not made an accused yet as several donors to the party were themselves victims in the case.

"The Congress party finds mention at many places but not as accused...is the party a victim?" the court asked ED counsel during the hearing.

Special counsel Hossain said, "We have certainly mentioned AICC members being cheated...the Congress has not been made an accused yet".

The remarks were made during the opening submissions on whether to take cognisance of the matter. The Gandhis have denied the charges and the Congress has called it political vendetta.

"Accused number 1 (Sonia Gandhi) and accused number 2 (Rahul Gandhi) acquired around ₹142 crores as direct proceeds of crime from the period of 2010 to 2023, through the properties of AJL which were rented out," said additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju.

Raju said the objective of the conspiracy was to illegally obtain AJL's assets by the beneficial owners of Young Indian (YI), a company in which Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi allegedly hold a 76% stake.

"There is sufficient evidence showing prima facie, the offence of money laundering...the accused persons, by actually and knowingly being involved in the process or activity connected with proceeds of crime derived through criminal activity relating to the scheduled offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy which led to the fraudulent takeover of properties worth more than ₹2,000 crores of AJL, a public unlisted company, by private firm YI owned by Rahul and Sonia Gandhi."