The Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed a Delhi court on Wednesday that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have used ₹142 crore from crime proceeds.

In the National Herald money laundering case, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, representing the ED, said the accused used the proceeds of crime until the ED attached assets worth ₹751.9 crore linked to the National Herald in November 2023.

The ED stated that the Gandhis committed money laundering after they acquired the proceeds and continued to hold them.

The agency also said there is a prima facie case of money laundering against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Sam Pitroda, Suman Dubey, and others.

The judge directed the ED to provide a copy of the chargesheet to the complainant, Subramanian Swamy. The ED recently filed this chargesheet after beginning its investigation in 2021.

The first complaint came in 2012. The ED began investigating under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2014. This followed a trial court taking cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe that resulted from a private criminal complaint filed by Subramanian Swamy in 2012.

Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald, stopped the publication in 2008 due to financial losses. AJL had 1,057 shareholders in 2010.

According to Swamy’s complaint, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi acquired AJL through a new company called Young Indian Limited (YIL) by cheating, criminal misappropriation and breach of trust.

AJL owed ₹90.25 crore to the Indian National Congress. The party transferred this loan to YIL for ₹50 lakh. Through this transfer, control of AJL passed to YIL.

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi jointly owned 38 percent of YIL shares, together holding 76 percent. YIL eventually owned 99 percent of AJL.

This transfer of control did not pass through the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) or any other regulatory body, which raised concerns.