New Delhi, Apr 15 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and others before a special court here in the National Herald case accusing them of allegedly laundering Rs 988 crore.

The prosecution complaint filed on April 9 under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) named Sonia Gandhi, a former Congress president, as the accused no 1, and her son and MP Rahul Gandhi, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, as the accused no 2.

The Congress on Tuesday alleged the action by the Enforcement Directorate(ED) against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi was "vendetta politics" and that seizing of assets in the case was a "state-sponsored crime masquerading as the rule of law".

As the ED move triggered a political slugfest, the BJP said the proceedings in the case began with the order of the court.

“Do they mean the court was taking vindictive action against them?” asked BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonwalla.

A "criminal conspiracy" was carried out by Congress leaders to "usurp" properties worth Rs 2,000 crore of its public company Associated Journals Limited(AJL) by transferring 99 per cent shares to their private company named Young Indian for just Rs 50 lakh, a firm where Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are the majority shareholders, the ED is learnt to have said in its chargesheet. AJL is the publisher of the Congress-controlled National Herald news platform (newspaper and web portal) and it is owned by Young Indian Private Limited.

Sources told PTI that the ED has pegged the "proceeds of crime" in the money laundering case at Rs 988 crore and the current market value of the linked assets at Rs 5,000 crore.

Special judge Vishal Gogne examined the chargesheet on the point of cognisance and posted the matter for further proceedings on April 25.

The other accused named are Congress party associates Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, two companies Young Indian and Dotex Merchandise Pvt Ltd and Sunil Bhandari (of Dotex Merchandise).

"The present prosecution complaint shall next be taken up for consideration on the aspect of cognisance before this court on April 25, 2025 when the special counsel for the ED and IO shall also ensure the production of the case diaries for perusal by the court," the judge said.

The ED has filed the chargesheet under sections 44 and 45 of the PMLA for "commission of offence of money laundering" as defined under section 3 of the Act along with section 70 (offences by companies) seeking to establish "vicarious liability" of the office bearers and executives of the firm. It has sought punishment against the accused under section 4 of PMLA where punishment can extend up to seven years.

"Let the complaint be checked and registered. The Ahlmad (court staff) shall ensure that the entire file/documents are properly paginated. The ED is directed to file a soft copy of the complaint and documents in readable/OCR format by the next date," Judge Gogne said.

Judge Gogne, who deals with cases relating to lawmakers, noted the submission of the ED, which would be moving an application before the district judge for the transfer of the case related to the predicate offence for alleged cheating, criminal conspiracy and other offence from another court to his court. The ED had started its investigation in the present matter based on the case related to the predicate offence.

The predicate offence is required to be tried by the same court which takes cognisance of the offence under Section 3 PMLA, the judge said, and Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively.

"Essentially, the two offences viz the predicate offence and the PMLA offence are required to be tried by the same court." Since the allegations in the present complaint were arising from the predicate offence, the file in the predicate offence were required to be called for perusal, the court added.

"However, the power of assignment or transfer of a matter is not vested with this court and is rather the prerogative of the Principal District & Sessions Judge, Rouse Avenue Courts Complex, New Delhi." The ED on Saturday said it has served notices to take possession of immovable assets worth Rs 661 crore that it had attached as part of a money laundering probe linked to National Herald newspaper and the AJL.

The ED investigation began in 2021 after a metropolitan magistrate in Patiala House courts in Delhi took cognisance of a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on June 26, 2014.

The complaint, the ED said, highlighted a "criminal conspiracy" by several prominent political figures, including the first family of the Congress party led by Sonia, Rahul, late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes aside from Dubey, Pitroda and a private company Young Indian for their alleged involvement in money laundering in relation to the fraudulent takeover of properties valued over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to the AJL.

"The legal proceedings against the accused have faced challenges but have been upheld by both the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India, allowing the investigation to proceed," the ED said.

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are majority shareholders of Young Indian with 38 per cent shares held by each one of them. They were questioned for hours by the ED in this case a few years ago.

The ED claimed its investigation has "conclusively" found that Young Indian, a private company "beneficially owned" by Sonia and Rahul, "acquired" AJL properties worth Rs 2,000 crore for a mere Rs 50 lakh, significantly undervaluing its worth.

"Young Indian and AJL properties were used for generation of further proceeds of crime in the form of bogus donations to the tune of Rs 18 crore, bogus advance rent to the tune of Rs 38 crore and bogus advertisements of Rs 29 crore," it alleged.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh asserted that the Congress and its leadership would not be silenced and that the truth shall prevail.

"Filing chargesheets against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and some others is nothing but politics of vendetta and intimidation by the prime minister and the home minister gone completely berserk," Ramesh said in a post on X.

"Seizing the assets of the National Herald is a state-sponsored crime masquerading as the rule of law.” Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi termed the case as "fake" and said by indulging in such action, the government is exposing itself and its vendetta politics.

"As stated years ago when this was initiated, the National Herald case is a one-trick wonder where this government has started a money laundering investigation without there being any movement of money, any movement of property, any activity which caused a transfer," he said in a video statement. PTI UK NES AMK SKC PK GSN GSN GSN