In more trouble for Congress, the PMLA Adjudicating Authority has confirmed the provisional attachment of assets worth Rs 750 crore of party-held Associated Journals Ltd that was later acquired by Young India, a company under majority control of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
In November 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached immovable assets and equity shares worth about Rs 752 crore as part of its ongoing money laundering probe against the National Herald newspaper and associated companies.
On Wednesday, upholding the ED’s move, the adjudicating authority said in its order: “….the complainant has sufficient grounds to believe that the attached properties are directly or indirectly involved in the proceeds of crime and are likely intended to be concealed, transferred or dealt with in a manner that would obstruct the proceedings related to the confiscation of such proceeds.” It also called the decision of the ED Deputy Director ‘prima facie sustainable’.
The adjudicating authority said in its order that there is prima facie reason to believe that the attached assets are ‘proceeds of crime’ as defined under section 2(1)(u) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, which renders them liable to confirmation of attachment under section 8(3) of the said Act.
The attachment order getting upheld could impact National Herald’s office premises at ITO in Delhi, the Nehru Bhawan at Mall Avenue near Kaiserbagh in Lucknow and the Herald House in Mumbai.
Congress had called the ED’s decision ‘vendetta politics ‘ last year when the attachment order came on the eve of assembly elections in five states.
The probe in the case began after a complaint of cheating and criminal conspiracy by Subramanyam Swamy. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Malikarjun Kharge have been examined by the ED in this case.
The ED had said: “The accused persons hatched a criminal conspiracy to acquire properties worth hundreds of crores of AJL through a special purpose vehicle – Young Indian. AJL was given land on concessional rates in various cities of India for the purpose of publishing newspapers.”
It further alleged that AJL closed its publishing operations in 2008 and started “using” the properties for commercial purposes. It said AJL had to repay a loan of Rs 90.21 crore to the All India Congress Committee (AICC), but the party treated it as non-recoverable and sold it for Rs 50 lakh to a newly incorporated company, Young Indian, “without” any source of income to pay even Rs 50 lakh.
After purchasing the loan of Rs 90.21 crore from the AICC, YI demanded either repayment of loan or allotment of equity shares of AJL to it. The ED said AJL held an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) and passed a resolution to increase share capital and issue fresh shares worth Rs 90.21 crore to YI. “With this fresh allotment of shares, shareholding of more than 1,000 shareholders was reduced to a mere 1 percent and AJL became a subsidiary company of YI. YI also took control over properties of AJL,” it added.
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