HC declines to restrain AJL from seeking National Herald assets release

The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to restrain Gandhi family controlled Associated Journals Limited (AJL) from seeking release of properties, including Herald House at ITO attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), before the PMLA Appellate Tribunal in the National Herald case.

This was after ED’s lawyer additional solicitor general SV Raju urged a bench of justice Sachin Datta to pass an order for status quo before the tribunal.

The law officer contended that the trial court’s December 16 order refusing to take cognisance of the agency’s charge sheet was being relied upon to seek the release of properties, attached by the agency.

“I am not passing any order,” justice Datta said, while fixing November 2 as the next date of hearing.

The court was hearing ED’s petition against trial court’s December 16 order. The trial court had refused to take cognisance of ED’s charge sheet, concluding that a prosecution complaint filed by an authorised officer under the PMLA, cannot rest on a scheduled offence arising from a private complaint and must be based on an offence registered by a law enforcement agency—either through a police FIR or a complaint by a person authorised to investigate the scheduled offence.

The court’s 117-page order stated that the ED’s case reflected a unilateral overreach of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and “an ill-advised out-pacing of the scheme of the PMLA itself”.

Following this ED had moved the high court arguing that the special judge failed to appreciate that cognisance taken by a competent court on a private complaint constituting the scheduled offence stands on a much higher footing. The order, ED asserted, has given a “hall pass” to a category of money launderers only on the ground that the scheduled offence is reported by a private individual through a complaint to a magistrate.

In its reply filed on September 18, senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have opposed before the Delhi high court Enforcement Directorate’s petition against the trial court’s refusal to take cognisance of its charge sheet in the National Herald case, contending that the case is the only instance in the country where the agency has proceeded on the basis of a private complaint, using it as the foundation for initiating proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The leaders asserted that the terms “private complaint” or “complaint by a public person/citizen” do not find mention in the PMLA and a private complaint, under no circumstances, can serve as a foundational instrument for registration of an ECIR under the Act, initiation of investigation and launching of prosecution. The affidavit added that ED is embarking upon an endeavour to find support from general and convenient self-invented legal premises.

The affidavit further stated the agency is demonstrating “extraordinary interest” in the case, since it filed the appeal a day after the trial court’s December 16 order in a “lightning speed”.

It further stated that ED did not register an ECIR following a complaint filed by Subramanian Swamy in 2014, and only registered one on June 30, 2021, nearly seven years later and thus even the agency’s conduct reflected its understanding that a private complaint, by itself, could not trigger proceedings under the PMLA.

Established in 1937 by Jawaharlal Nehru, AJL published the National Herald, Qaumi Awaz in Urdu and Navjeevan in Hindi. It was given land in various cities at concessional rates to run the newspapers but closed operations in 2008 and offered a voluntary retirement scheme to all employees, which was accepted by them. By then, the debt on its books had risen to ₹90 crore, the money coming from the Congress.

It was taken over in 2010 by Young Indian, a company in which Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi together hold 76%. The allegation is that YI paid ₹50 lakh against the loan and took over AJL. ED has alleged that AJL relaunched its news operations around 2016 “just to show that it is still engaged in publishing of newspapers” after investigations were started into the company’s affairs by various agencies.

Besides the Gandhis, the ED has also named Pitroda and former journalist Dubey in the charge sheet, along with Young Indian Private Limited and Kolkata-based Dotex Merchandise, which ED claims is a shell company that gave a loan to YI as part of the conspiracy.