A Delhi court on Monday reserved its verdict on whether it should take cognisance of the allegations of money laundering against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and five others in the National Herald Case [ED v Sonia Gandhi & Ors].
Special Judge (PC Act) Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Court said the order will be pronounced on July 29.
Apart from Gandhis, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, Young Indian, Dotex Merchandise and Sunil Bhandari have been proposed as accused by the ED.
The ED has alleged that there was laundering of 'proceeds of crime' derived from the alleged fraudulent takeover of the properties of Associated Journals Limited (AJL) – publishers of National Herald which is worth more than ₹2,000 crore - by a company called Young Indian, in which the Gandhis are stated to be the majority shareholders.
It is ED's case that the shares of AJL were transferred to Young Indian under a criminal conspiracy to illegally obtain the assets of AJL. The value of shares, the immovable properties of AJL and the rent generated from them are the alleged proceeds of crime in the ED case.
However, the Gandhis have contended that it is a strange and unprecedented case where allegations of money laundering have been made without use or projection of the property.
During the course of the hearings, the Congress leader refuted ED’s allegations that Young Indian was used to usurp AJL’s assets in exchange for a loan.
The loan was to make AJL debt-free, they argued.
The National Herald case stems from a private complaint by former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy, accusing Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, and Gandhi family-controlled Young Indian of cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of property.
The ED filed a prosecution complaint against the Gandhis as well as Pitroda and others on April 15 this year.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain, Special Public Prosecutor NK Matta along with advocates Harsh Paul Singh, Annam Venkatesh, Vivek Gurnani, Hitarh Raja, Pranjal Tripathi, Ilma Khan, Siddharth Kaushik, Mohd Faizan Khan and Agnima appeared for the ED.
Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, with advocates Tarannum Cheema, Kanishka Singh, Akash Singh, Akshay Nagarajan, Nikhil Bhalla, Sumit Kumar, Sadeev Kang and Rishabh Kant Sharma represented Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi was represented through Senior Advocate RS Cheema as well as advocates Tarannum Cheema, Kanishka Singh and Nikhil Bhalla.
Advocates Sushil Bajaj, Alka Chohar, Aashish Chohar and Akshya Nagarajan appeared for Suman Dubey.
Advocates Kuber Boddh, Manica Singh Avijit and Somya Dhawan represented Sam Pitroda.
Senior Advocate Madhav Khurana, along with advocates Nakul Gandhi, Akash Singh, Amit and Sanjivani, appeared for Young Indian.
Senior Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey with advocates Gautam Khazanchi, Vaibhav Dubey, Kushank Sandhoo, Anurag Andley, Ankit Vashishth, Muskan Sharma, Aditi Kukreja and Anshala V appeared for Dotex Merchandise.
Advocates Sowjhanya Shankaran, Siddharth Satija, Akash Sachan and Anuka Bhachawat appeared for Sunil Bhandari.