National Herald case: ED’s big action, assets in the national capital, 2 other states attached
In a big setback to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached assets worth Rs.751.9 crore as part of its money laundering investigation against the Young Indian that owns the National Herald newspaper. The ED in a statement said that the agency has attached the properties in Delhi, Mumbai, and Lucknow belonging to Associated Journals, Young Indian, a shell firm floated by Sonia and Rahul to grab the assets of the National Herald newspaper. The ED was acting on the complaint and case filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy against the Congress leaders.
“Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has issued an order to provisionally attach properties worth Rs.751.9 crore in a money-laundering case investigated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. Investigation revealed that M/s. 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 M/s. 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.
ED initiated a money-laundering investigation based on a process issued by the Hon’ble Court of Metropolitan Magistrate of Delhi after taking cognizance of a private complaint vide order dated 26.06.2014. The Hon’ble Court held that seven accused persons including M/s Young India, prima facie committed offences of criminal breach of trust u/s 406 of IPC, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property u/s 420 of IPC, dishonest misappropriation of property u/s 403 and criminal conspiracy u/s 120B of IPC.
“The Hon’ble Court held that the accused persons hatched a criminal conspiracy to acquire properties worth hundreds of Crores of AJL through a special purpose vehicle, M/s Young Indian. M/s AJL was given land on concessional rates in various cities of India to publish newspapers. AJL closed its publishing operations in 2008 and started using the properties for commercial purposes. AJL had to repay a loan of Rs.90.21 crore to All India Congress Committee (AICC), however, AICC treated the said loan of Rs.90.21 crore as non-recoverable from AJL and sold it for Rs.50 lakh to a newly incorporated company M/s Young Indian without any source of income to pay even Rs.50 lakh. By their action, the shareholders of AJL as well as donors of the Congress Party were cheated by the office bearers of AJL and Congress Party.
“ED investigation revealed that after purchasing the loan of Rs.90.21 crore from AICC, YI demanded either repayment of loan or allotment of equity shares of 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 YI. With this fresh allotment of shares, the shareholding of more than 1000 shareholders was reduced to a mere 1% and AJL became a subsidiary company of YI. YI also took control over the properties of AJL. Further investigation is under progress,” said ED in a detailed statement.
Taking cognizance of Subramanian Swamy’s complaint, the ED had questioned Sonia and Rahul Gandhi for so many days.[1]
PGurus Managing Editor Sree Iyer has published a detailed book on the National Herald Scam. The book is available here[2].
Reference:
[1] ED raids National Herald office, 11 other locations in Lucknow and Kolkata. Expected to attach properties soon – Aug 02, 2022, PGurus.com
[2] National Herald frauds: Arrogant stealing of prime real estate – another instance of hubris of the Gandhi family Hardcover – Feb 09, 2021, Amazon.in
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