National Herald money laundering case: Court seeks further clarifications from ED, calls IO with case file

NEW DELHI: Hearing the National Herald money laundering case on Tuesday, the Rouse Avenue court has listed the matter for further inspection and directed the investigation officer (IO) to appear with the case file on September 26.

Thereafter, the court may fix the matter for order on cognisance of ED’s Prosecution complaint, and ED had filed a Prosecution complaint against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others.

Special Judge Vishal Gogne, after hearing the short submissions of senior counsel for Dotex Merchandise Private Limited, listed the further clarifications from the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The counsel for the proposed accused, Suman Dubey, filed written submissions.

Special public prosecutor N K Matta appeared physically before the court. On the last date, September 6, ED had filed a copy of ECIR and the complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in 2014.

Senior Counsel Pramod Kumar Dubey for Dotex Merchandise Private Limited submitted that the name of his client is not mentioned in either the ECIR or in the complaint filed by Subramanian Swamy.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on September 6 filed documents of a complaint filed by BJP Leader Subramaniam Swamy in 2014 and the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in the National Herald Money laundering case against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others.

This matter is pending for the order on summoning the Prosecution complaint filed by the ED. During the earlier hearing, the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju appeared through video conferencing and stated that the ED is not averse to filing these two documents before the court and providing the same to the proposed accused. He sought to file the same through a formal application.

The court had sought Certain clarifications in the context of two documents, available in the case files/with the ED, but not filed along with the prosecution complaint. These documents are the complaint dated 04.07.2014 filed by Dr. Subramaniam Swamy with the ED and ECIR registered on 30.06.2021, subsequently recorded in the present matter by the ED, the court order reads.

On July 29, the Rouse Avenue court deferred the order on cognisance of the ED charge sheet in the National Herald money laundering case. The court had raised some questions for clarification from the case file.

The Enforcement Directorate had filed a charge sheet (Prosecution complaint) against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, Sunil Bhandari, Young Indian and Dotex Merchandise.

This case pertains to the allegations of getting a right by Young Indian to recover a loan amount of Rs 90 crore from the Associated Journal Limited (AJL) by paying Rs 50 lakh to Congress. The Congress party had given a loan of Rs. 90 crores to AJL.

According to the ED, the proposed accused allegedly fraudulently took over the AJL, which has assets worth Rs. 2,000 crores. The court had reserved the order on July 14 on cognisance after hearing the submissions of the Enforcement Directorate and the proposed accused persons.

On July 12, in rebuttal arguments before the court, ASG S V Raju said that Young Indian was involved in money laundering and continues to be involved. Raju asserted that there were sufficient grounds to take cognisance of the prosecution complaint against all accused persons in the National Herald money laundering case. (ANI)