News Analysis India

Tag: National Herald case

  • Shivraj Singh Chouhan orders probe into commercial use of National Herald property in Bhopal

    By Express News Service

    BHOPAL: The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh has ordered a probe into the commercial use of National Herald assets in Bhopal.

    “Certainly a probe will be conducted as to whether the concerned property is being used commercially or not. If it’s found that the concerned property is being used commercially then the property will be sealed. Those using the property commercially will subsequently have to face strict action,,” state’s urban development and housing minister Bhupendra Singh said on Thursday.

    He added that action will also be initiated against all those officials who helped in changing the land use of the concerned National Herald property (building).

    Importantly, the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) — the company which earlier published the National Herald newspaper — had properties in multiple cities, including Delhi, Patna, Mumbai, Bhopal and Indore.

    The concerned property in Bhopal is located in the Press Complex in Maharana Pratap (MP) Nagar.

    Earlier in the day, the MP CM had justified ED’s action in the case, including the sealing of Young India’s office in Delhi.

    BHOPAL: The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh has ordered a probe into the commercial use of National Herald assets in Bhopal.

    “Certainly a probe will be conducted as to whether the concerned property is being used commercially or not. If it’s found that the concerned property is being used commercially then the property will be sealed. Those using the property commercially will subsequently have to face strict action,,” state’s urban development and housing minister Bhupendra Singh said on Thursday.

    He added that action will also be initiated against all those officials who helped in changing the land use of the concerned National Herald property (building).

    Importantly, the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) — the company which earlier published the National Herald newspaper — had properties in multiple cities, including Delhi, Patna, Mumbai, Bhopal and Indore.

    The concerned property in Bhopal is located in the Press Complex in Maharana Pratap (MP) Nagar.

    Earlier in the day, the MP CM had justified ED’s action in the case, including the sealing of Young India’s office in Delhi.

  • National Herald case: ED questions Sonia Gandhi for over 3 hours on day 3

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi for over three hours on the third day of her deposition in the National Herald newspaper-linked money laundering case.

    No fresh summons were issued, officials said. Sonia Gandhi reached the federal agency’s office in central Delhi at 11 am accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and son Rahul Gandhi.

    ALSO READ: Congress workers protest outside Nagpur ED office against questioning of Sonia Gandhi

    The session began around 11.15 am. The team of investigators included the main probe officer and a person who took down statements dictated by the Congress chief.

    Sonia Gandhi left the ED office around 2 pm. The 75-year-old Gandhi was questioned for over eight hours in the last two appearances and faced about 65-70 questions, officials said. She is understood to have faced a set of 30-40 more questions on Wednesday.

    ALSO READ: Youth Congress workers detained after ‘rail roko’ protest in Mumbai against ED questioning of Sonia Gandhi

    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi for over three hours on the third day of her deposition in the National Herald newspaper-linked money laundering case.

    No fresh summons were issued, officials said. Sonia Gandhi reached the federal agency’s office in central Delhi at 11 am accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and son Rahul Gandhi.

    ALSO READ: Congress workers protest outside Nagpur ED office against questioning of Sonia Gandhi

    The session began around 11.15 am. The team of investigators included the main probe officer and a person who took down statements dictated by the Congress chief.

    Sonia Gandhi left the ED office around 2 pm. The 75-year-old Gandhi was questioned for over eight hours in the last two appearances and faced about 65-70 questions, officials said. She is understood to have faced a set of 30-40 more questions on Wednesday.

    ALSO READ: Youth Congress workers detained after ‘rail roko’ protest in Mumbai against ED questioning of Sonia Gandhi

  • National Herald case: ED grills Rahul Gandhi for over 11 hours for fifth day; no fresh summons

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate for over 11 hours on Tuesday, the fifth day of his deposition in the National Herald money laundering case.

    The Congress MP from Wayanad (Kerala) spent a total of about 54 hours at the ED office over five sittings with the investigators questioning him over multiple sessions and recording his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

    He has not been issued fresh summons and it is understood that his questioning has ended, at least for now. Gandhi (52) took a half-hour break around 8 pm and re-joined the session that started in the morning at 11:30 am.

    He finally left the agency office at 11:30 pm. He was questioned for three consecutive days last week, beginning June 13, and after Monday’s questioning, he was asked to rejoin the session and complete the recording of his statement.

    Gandhi left the agency office after midnight on Monday. The probe relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.

    The ED is understood to have asked Gandhi about the incorporation of Young Indian Private Limited, operations of the National Herald, the loan given by the party to the newspaper’s publisher Associated Journals Limited (AJL), and the transfer of funds within the news media establishment.

    It is understood that Gandhi stuck to his position that there was no personal acquisition of assets by himself or his family as Young Indian was a “not-for-profit” company and that despite he being a majority shareholder, various financial decisions taken to revive the National Herald newspaper was taken collectively by senior Congress party leaders.

    The ED, sources indicated, wanted to understand how the loan was extended to AJL by the Congress party and if the provisions of the Companies Act and the anti-money laundering law were contravened in this AJL-Congress-Young Indian deal.

    Gandhi is understood to have faced a set of at least 20 questions during the five days of questioning.

    The move to question Gandhi was initiated after the ED recently registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the PMLA after a trial court here took cognisance of an Income Tax department probe against Young Indian on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

    Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and majority shareholders of Young Indian. Like her son, the Congress president too has 38 per cent shareholding. Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds, with YI paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to the Congress.

    In February last year, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Gandhis for their response on Swamy’s plea, seeking to lead evidence in the matter before the trial court. Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal were questioned by the ED in this case in April.

    Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also been summoned by the agency for questioning in the case on June 23. She was discharged on Monday from a private hospital in Delhi where she was admitted for coronavirus-related complications.

    She has been advised rest at home. The Congress has accused the Centre of targeting opposition leaders by misusing investigative agencies and has termed the entire action a “political vendetta”.

  • National Herald case: Rahul Gandhi joins Enforcement Directorate probe on 5th day

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: After facing over 40 hours of questioning in the four days of interrogation, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday again appeared before the Enforcement Directorate to rejoin the investigation against him in an alleged money laundering case related the National Herald newspaper.

    The Lok Sabha member from Wayanad in Kerala arrived at ED headquarters at around 11.15 am accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi.

    Rahul Gandhi has been questioned by the ED for over 40 hours on three straight days from June 13 to June 15 and on Monday (June 20). The Congress leader was deposed before the ED investigators in the case for the first time on June 13. He first sought exemption from appearance on June 16, following which he was called on June 17. But the senior Congress leader wrote to the ED to postpone his questioning citing the illness of his mother Sonia Gandhi. The ED then allowed him to join the probe on June 20 at his request. On Tuesday, ED investigators questioned Rahul Gandhi till midnight.

    ALSO READ: Congress holds protest in Delhi against Agnipath scheme, questioning of Rahul Gandhi by ED

    As per official sources, the Congress leader, a Z+ category protectee of the Central Reserve Police Force after the Union government withdrew the Gandhi family’s Special Protection Group cover in 2019, has been confronted with several documents collated by the ED as evidence recovered so far in the case to get his version.

    Rahul Gandhi has been questioned in detail about the ownership of Young Indian Private Limited (YIL) by the Gandhi family and its shareholding pattern in Associate Journals Limited (AJL), the company that runs the National Herald newspaper, said sources.

    Investigators in the ED, sources said, have also questioned Rahul Gandhi to describe the circumstances under which AJL was acquired by YIL in 2010, making it the owner of all assets owned by the National Herald newspaper.

    The National Herald, started by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was published by the AJL. In 2010, the AJL, which faced financial difficulties, was taken over by a newly-floated YIL with Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda as directors, both of them Gandhi loyalists.

    In a complaint in the Delhi High Court, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy accused Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi, and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds.

    Officials familiar with the probe said Rahul Gandhi is being asked questions about the takeover of the AJL by YIL since the Gandhis have stakes in the latter.

    The Congress leader is being questioned under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

    The ED has also recorded statements of Rahul Gandhi to know about the incorporation of the YIL, the operations of the National Herald and the fund transfer within the news media establishment.

    The ED is also investigating the financial transactions as well as the role of party functionaries in the functioning of AJL and YIL.

    National Herald is published by the Associated AJL and owned by YIL.

    The ED has also taken the written statements of Rahul Gandhi under Section 50 of the PMLA.

    Congress leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal were earlier questioned in the case. Rahul Gandhi’s mother Sonia Gandhi has also been summoned by the ED to appear before the investigators in the case on June 23. She was admitted on June 12 to the Ganga Ram Hospital following post-Covid complications. She was discharged from the hospital on Monday.

    There are allegations that AJL was founded in the 1930s to print National Herald and had 5,000 freedom fighters as shareholders. AJL is now in the Gandhi family ownership. AJL declared in 2008 that it won’t print newspapers anymore and will enter real estate.

    In 2010, a new firm called YIL is incorporated with Rs 5 lakh and with Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi among other Congress leaders as directors. It pledges to do charity but does none till 2016, as per allegations.

    It is also alleged that AJL’s nine crore shares (99 pc of all) are transferred to YIL, and that Rahul Gandhi alone holds 75 per cent shares while Sonia and other senior Congress own the rest.

    There is another set of allegations that Congress gave AJL a Rs 90 crore loan which Congress writes off in lieu of alleged ownership of AJL assets worth Rs 2,000 crore.

    However, Congress claims that the loan was given to pay the salaries of AJL staffers and to save National Herald and that YIL is a not-for-profit company and its ownership still vests with AJL.

    “YIL can’t pay dividends to shareholders and not a penny has moved. How can there be money laundering without any money changing hands.”

    The case to investigate alleged financial irregularities under the PMLA was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by BJP leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

    Swamy had approached the court alleging that the assets of AJL were fraudulently acquired and transferred to YIL, in which Sonia Gandhi and her son owned 38 per cent shares each.

    The YIL promoters include Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis cheated and misappropriated funds, with YIL paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to Congress.

    Congress argued that YIL was a not-for-profit company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 that can neither accumulate profits nor pay dividends to its shareholders.

    Calling it a case of political vendetta, senior Supreme Court advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had said, “This is truly a very weird case — an alleged money laundering case on which summons are issued with no money involved.”

    The federal agency’s move followed the questioning of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal in April this year in New Delhi in connection with its money laundering probe into the National Herald case.

    The agency then recorded the statements of both the Congress leaders and then under the PMLA. While Kharge is the CEO of YIL, Bansal is the Managing Director of AJL.

    All roads leading to the ED office in central Delhi are barricaded by the police amid heavy deployment of Rapid Action Force personnel and Delhi Police.

    The Delhi Police has imposed provisions of Section 144 CrPC to prohibit assembly and entry of people on roads leading to the ED headquarters in Pravaratan Bhawan on APJ Abdul Kalam Road. (ANI)

  • National Herald case: Enforcement Directorate summons Rahul Gandhi for fifth day on Tuesday

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to join investigation for the fifth day on June 21 and record his statement in the National Herald money laundering case, officials said on Monday.

    Gandhi appeared for the fourth day of questioning on Monday, a day after he turned 52, and the session would continue. Officials said that he has been asked to join the probe again on Tuesday and continue recording his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

    The Congress MP has spent as many as 38 hours at the ED headquarters on APJ Abdul Kalam Road in the national capital over four sittings since his first appearance on June 13. The ED probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.

    The newspaper is published by Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and owned by Young Indian Private Limited. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also been summoned by the agency for questioning in the case on June 23.

  • Congress leaders complain to V-P, Speaker about police action

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday requested the Enforcement Directorate to defer his questioning to Monday, saying he has to tend to his ailing mother Sonia Gandhi. The agency had summoned him for questioning in the National Herald case for the fourth day on Friday.

    The Congress, meanwhile, held a series of protests in Delhi and other states over the “brutal police action” against its leaders and workers at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday. Senior Congress leaders had alleged that they were thrashed and that the police had entered the party office in Delhi forcefully.

    A delegation of Congress MPs met the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman and raised the issue of alleged ill-treatment of party lawmakers, including some women, by the Delhi Police. The delegation that met Speaker Om Birla was led by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

    He narrated how some party MPs, including Jothimani, were allegedly dragged by the police personnel and that her clothes ‘were torn’. A separate delegation led by Mallikarjun Kharge. met RS Chairman Venkaiah Naidu and brought to his notice the violations of privileges of MPs by the police.

  • Delhi Police enter Congress HQ, beat up cadre? Cops deny

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: The Congress headquarters here witnessed high drama on Wednesday as the party continued its protest over the questioning of its leader Rahul Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald case for the third consecutive day.

    Party leaders alleged that Delhi Police personnel forcibly entered its headquarters at Akbar Road and thrashed them, posting a video of the incident on Twitter to substantiate their claims. However, the police denied their allegations.

    “In an act of absolute goondaism perpetuated by the Delhi Police at the instance of the Modi government, the police today forcibly entered the national headquarters of the Congress here and beat up party workers and leaders. This is patently criminal trespass,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.

    Other senior leaders alleged that security personnel misbehaved with women parliamentarians and treated them like ‘criminals’. Jothimani Sennimalai, Tamil Nadu MP, released a video in which she appealed to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to initiate action against the security personnel who mistreated women MPs. “We were brutally beaten up and assaulted on Tuesday and today as well.

    Our clothes were torn and shoes were removed. They are taking us to an unknown location. We needed water but the police didn’t allow us to purchase water. The security personnel bundled 7-8 women in the bus and treated them like criminals,” she alleged. Detained party leaders and functionaries such as Sachin Pilot, Amrita Dhawan, Ajay Yadav, Vivek Bansal, Lalji Desai and Srinivas B V were taken to different police stations in Alipur, Narela, Vasant Kunj, Najafgarh, and Burari.

    The Congress demanded that an FIR for criminal trespass be filed, erring police personnel suspended and disciplinary action initiated against them. However, the police rejected the charges. “The allegations are totally false and we strongly denied them,” a senior police officer said.

  • Congress protest march in support of corruption: BJP 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI:  The BJP on Monday criticised the protest march of the Congress against the ED summons to its leader Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, saying members of the opposition party have hit the streets in support of corruption and to allegedly protect over Rs 2,000 crore assets of the Gandhi family.

    Addressing a press conference, BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani said the show of strength by the Congress is aimed at putting pressure on the probe agency, and asserted that nobody is above the law “even Rahul Gandhi”.

    Congress members should also ask Rahul Gandhi about his family’s relations with Dotex Merchandise, which she described as a hawala operator whose transactions have been flagged by the Financial Intelligence Unit.

    The BJP leader alleged that the Gandhi family floated Young Indian to grab the assets worth over Rs 2,000 crore of Associated Journals Limited, which publishes the National Herald newspaper.

    Never before such a blatant attempt was made by a political family to hold a probe agency to ransom, she said. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Monday appeared before the ED here for questioning in the National Herald money-laundering investigation.

  • National Herald case: Delhi HC grants time to Sonia, Rahul Gandhi to file replies on Subramanian Swamy’s plea

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday granted time to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and others accused in the National Herald case, to file replies on a plea by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy seeking to lead evidence before the trial court.

    Justice Suresh Kumar Kait listed the matter for further hearing on May 18.

    Senior advocate R S Cheema and Tarannum Cheema, representing the Congress leaders, told the court that they could not file replies as their office was closed due to COVID-19 and sought more time.

    The high court had on February 22 issued notices and sought responses of Gandhis, AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and Young Indian (YI) on Swamy’s plea and had stayed the trial court proceedings in the case till then.

    Swamy has moved the high court against a trial court order of February 11 declining his plea to lead evidence to prosecute the Gandhis and the other accused in the case.

    The trial court had said that Swamy’s application under section 244 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to lead evidence would be considered after his examination in the case was over.

    Swamy has sought summoning of certain witnesses, including the secretary general (registry officer) of the Supreme Court, a deputy land and development officer, and a deputy commissioner of Income Tax, and also directions to them to prove certain documents which are part of the case.

    In a private criminal complaint in the trial court, the BJP leader had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying only Rs 50 lakh, through which Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that Associate Journals Ltd, owner of National Herald, owed to the Congress.

    All the seven accused – the Gandhis, AICC treasurer Motilal Vora, AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and YI – had denied the allegations.

    Proceedings against Vora abated subsequent to his death, while the others were summoned by the trial court in 2014 for the alleged offences of misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust and cheating, read with criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code.