Police files FIR against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi in National Herald case

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Delhi Police has filed an FIR against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and other accused in the National Herald case on a complaint by the ED as part of the agency's money laundering probe into the high-profile case that alleges that the first family of the party "abused" their position for personal gains.

Official sources said the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police filed a complaint against the Gandhis and seven others on October 3.

The police has pressed charges under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC in the FIR that names the Gandhis, Congress leaders Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda, entities like the Young Indian (YI) and Dotex Merchandise Ltd, Dotex promoter Sunil Bhandari, Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL) and unknown others.

These entities are also named as an accused (except unknown others) in the ED chargesheet filed before a Delhi court in April. The court is yet to take its cognisance with the next date of hearing scheduled for December 16.

The Congress party has earlier called this investigation as "petty vendetta tactics" and dubbed the ED a "coalition partner" of the BJP.

The ED, as per the sources, used powers available to it under section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to get the police FIR registered. This section allows the federal agency to share evidence for registration of a criminal predicate offence by a law enforcement agency so that it can subsequently book a money laundering case to take forward the investigation.

The FIR will work to strengthen the ED case and the chargesheet which stems from a court order -- Metropolitan Magistrate of Delhi -- that took cognisance of a private complaint by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on June 26, 2014 against alleged irregularities in the National Herald's affairs, the sources said.

The FIR has taken cognisance of the allegations stated by the ED in a letter sent to the EOW on September 4. The contents of the ED communication are similar to what the central agency is understood to have stated in its chargesheet.

The ED had alleged in its chargesheet that a "criminal conspiracy" was orchestrated by several prominent political figures, including the first family of the Congress party led by Sonia Gandhi, her MP son Rahul Gandhi apart from late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes and also Dubey, Pitroda and a private company Young Indian for alleged involvement in a money laundering scheme related to the fraudulent takeover of properties valued over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to the AJL.

AJL is the publisher of the National Herald news platform (newspaper and web portal) and it is owned by Young Indian Private Limited.

Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi 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 few years back.

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

It is understood to have alleged in the chargesheet that Sonia Gandhi "abused" her position as the former AICC president for personal gains to herself and her son Rahul Gandhi by converting public money for self use through the Young Indian (YI) company.