National Herald case: ED seizes assets worth Rs 751 crore in probe against Congress-linked companies

The Enforcement Directorate has seized assets worth Rs 751.9 crore in a probe against Congress-linked entities Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) and Young Indian pertaining to a money laundering case. A Delhi court, following a money laundering investigation, had concluded that Young Indian, along with other accused, committed offences such as criminal breach of trust, cheating, dishonest misappropriation of property and criminal conspiracy. 

“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 said in a statement.

Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi called ED’s action a "distraction created by the ruling BJP to divert attention from their defeat in the upcoming state elections". Adding that there were no complainants who claimed to have been defrauded, Singhvi said that action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) can only be taken in the presence of indications of an offence, but in this case there was no transfer of immovable property and no income was generated from the alleged crime. 

The investigation found out that there was a criminal conspiracy to acquire properties worth hundreds of crores of AJL through Young Indian. AJL had received land at concessional rates for publishing newspapers, but it closed its operations in 2008 and used the properties for commercial purposes.

AJL had to repay a loan of Rs 90.21 crore to All India Congress Committee (AICC) but the loan was treated as non-recoverable. AICC sold it for Rs 50 lakh to the newly incorporated, Young Indian, as per ED. According to the court, the shareholders of AJL and the donors of Congress were cheated by the office-bearers of AJL and Congress. 

After purchasing the loan of Rs 90.21 crore from AICC, Young Indian reportedly demanded either a repayment of the loan or allotment of equity shares of AJL to it, after which the latter passed a resolution to increase share capital and issue fresh shares worth Rs 90.21 crore to Young Indian. With this, the shareholding of over 1,000 shareholders was reduced to 1 per cent and AJL became a subsidiary of Young Indian. 

AJL was established by freedom fighters in 1937 and published the National Herald newspaper and its Urdu and Hindi editions, Qaumi Awaz and Navjeevan, respectively. 

Young Indian was registered by directors Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda. Rahul Gandhi was appointed director of the company in 2010. In 2011, Sonia Gandhi assumed directorship of Young Indian. By this time both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi controlled 36 per cent of Young Indian shares. 

The Income Tax Assessment accused the Gandhi family of controlling Young Indian by acquiring full control of AJL’s real estate properties worth hundreds of crores by only paying Rs 50 lakh. 

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