The Enforcement Directorate (ED), on April 9, filed a prosecution complaint against senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Sam Pitroda, and others in an alleged money laundering case related to the Associated Journals Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper. The ED probe was triggered in 2021, based on a June 2014 order issued by a Patiala House court metropolitan magistrate following a private complaint filed by senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

During the investigation, the ED purportedly found that Associated Journal Ltd (AJL), founded by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru way back in 1938, roping in several other freedom fighters, closed its publishing operations in 2008 but had several prime immovable properties estimated to be worth Rs 2000 crore. Though it had to repay a loan of Rs 90.21 crore to the All-India Congress Committee (AICC), the AICC treated the loan as non-recoverable and sold it to Young Indian, in which Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi have 38% equity stakes each, for just Rs 50 lakh. After purchasing the loan, Young Indian demanded either repayment of the loan of Rs 90.21 crore or equity shares of AJL. In an Extraordinary General Meeting of AJL, a resolution was passed to increase the share capital and issue fresh shares worth Rs 90.21 crore to Young Indian, thereby reducing the stakes of other shareholders to just 1%, as earlier alleged.

The BJP calls this hijacking of the AJL by Young Indian for a pittance with an eye on its immovable properties. The Congress rebuts this charge by saying it is the........

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