Congress leader Sonia Gandhi Friday argued that the ED’s National Herald money laundering case was “truly a strange” one.
Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Sonia, said: “This is a strange case…it might even be unprecedented. This is a case of money laundering without any money or property having moved. AJL’s (Associated Journals Ltd.) assets have existed for decades. Not one of these properties have moved ownership even by an inch. What happened was that the debt of AJL was assigned to YI (young Indian).”
“Debt can be assigned to someone else to make companies debt-free… Suppose AJL’s debt was taken by Tatas or Birlas, will Tatas and Birlas be accused of money laundering?” Singhvi argued. “YI only has a right on dividends and not on the assets of AJL,” he said.
Singhvi made these submissions before the court of Special Judge Vishal Gogne in the context of the allegations levelled by the ED wherein it alleged that the Congress created a company called Young Indian to launder money worth `2,000 crore from AJL — company which used to publish the National Herald newspaper.
As per ED, senior Congress leaders provided an interest-free loan of `90 crore to AJL, which had assets worth `2,000 crore, for a “consideration of just `50 lakh”. The ED said this debt taken by the AJL was allegedly converted into equity in favour of the not-for-profit company Young Indian, in which Sonia and her son Congress MP Rahul Gandhi held a majority 76% share.
“There is an 11-year gap between the restructuring of the firm (AJL) and the ECIR (analogous to the ED’s FIR). There is also an 8-year gap between the private complaint and the ECIR,” Singhvi said. “The ED has never done this in 23 years. Picking up a private complaint that hasn’t been probed in years and
then requesting the court to take cognizance.”
The case originated in 2012 from a criminal complaint filed by the then BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy against the Gandhis and other leaders of the Congress, whom he accused of fraud in acquiring AJL’s property.
