New Delhi : In a major relief to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, a Delhi court on Tuesday refused to take cognisance of the National Herald money laundering case. Special Judge (PC Act) Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Court said the complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was not maintainable as the case was based on a private complaint.
Apart from Gandhis, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, Young Indian, Dotex Merchandise and Sunil Bhandari were also made accused by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The Congress has maintained that the Enforcement Directorate’s probe is an act of political vendetta, while the agency has asserted that the case involves a serious economic offence with evidence of forgery and money laundering. The ED has alleged that properties of Associated Journals Limited, valued at over 2,000 crore, were wrongly taken over.
ED to formulate fresh appeal to challenge this particular order. The sources said that the judge possibly has ignored the relevant paragraphs of the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary judgment. Meanwhile, Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi on National Herald case, said, “When I started arguing the case… in the argument, I had told the court that this a very weird case where there is not a millimeter movement of money, not a millimeter movement of immovable property, all the properties remain with AJL and there is money laundering… AJL is now owned 90 per cent by another company Young India – that is all that has happened.
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