A Delhi court on Friday reserved its order for November 29 on cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) chargesheet in the National Herald case.
Special Judge Vishal Gogne said, “The additional solicitor general has advanced further submissions and clarifications on behalf of the ED in light of the inspection of the case filed by the court. List for orders on November 29.” Earlier, the court had also deferred the order on cognisance of the ED, pointing out the need to conduct further inspection of the case files. The ED has accused Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, late party leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, as well as Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and a private company, Young Indian, of conspiracy and money laundering over the alleged fraudulent takeover of Rs 2,000 crore worth properties belonging to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald newspaper. The ED’s case originates from the case filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, where Congress leaders have been facing trial since 2014.
The agency charged that the Gandhis held the majority 76 per cent shares in Young Indian, which allegedly fraudulently usurped the assets of AJL in exchange for a Rs 90 crore loan. The chargesheet names Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Pitroda, Dubey, Sunil Bhandari, Young Indian and Dotex Merchandise Pvt Ltd, a company linked to RP Goenka Group. ED has already attached properties of the erstwhile newspaper company in Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Panchkula, worth more than Rs 2000 crore.
