New Delhi, March 9 – The Delhi High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing on the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) plea challenging a trial court order refusing to take cognizance of its charge sheet against Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and others in the National Herald money laundering case.
A single-judge bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma deferred the matter to April 20 after briefly hearing the submissions in the high-profile case.
The federal anti-money laundering agency has challenged the December 16, 2022, order passed by a Special Judge at the Rouse Avenue Court here dismissing its charge sheet under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and declining to take cognizance of the alleged offences.
Earlier, while issuing notice on the ED's plea, the Delhi High Court had said that "the matter requires consideration" and directed the respondents, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, to file their replies.
Appearing for the ED, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said that the trial court erred in law by holding that a charge sheet under the PMLA cannot be based on a scheduled offence arising from a private complaint.
The ED said that "the cognizance taken by the competent court on a private complaint stands on a much higher footing than the FIR registered by the police".
It further contended that criminal law can be set into motion either through police investigation or by way of a private complaint before a Magistrate, and therefore the Special Judge could not have rejected the charge sheet on that ground alone.
The high-profile case relates to allegations that senior Congress leaders conspired to illegally acquire control over assets worth more than Rs 2,000 crore belonging to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the original publisher of the National Herald newspaper, by paying a nominal sum of Rs 50 lakh through Young Indian, a company in which Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are majority shareholders.
The controversy over the National Herald's assets came into focus in 2012 when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy filed a private complaint in a trial court, alleging that Congress leaders had engaged in cheating and breach of trust in the process of acquiring AJL.