Times When Gandhi Family Members Were Charged

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others on charges of money laundering in the National Herald case, bringing the grand-old-party under spotlight.

The Congress has rejected the claims made by the probe agency as vendetta politics even as the party leaders and workers took out demonstration and marched across the country against the ED move.

The chargesheet was filed under Sections 3 (money laundering) and 4 (punishment for money laundering) of Prevention of Money Laundering Act and also mentions Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey as accused in the case.

What Is The National Herald Case?

The ED began the investigation in 2021 after a metropolitan magistrate in New Delhi’s Patiala House courts took cognisance of a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on June 26, 2014. 

The ED said that the complaint highlighted a criminal conspiracy by several prominent political figures, including the first family of the Congress party led by Sonia, her MP son Rahul, late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes aside from Dubey, Pitroda and a private company Young Indian.

The probe agency claimed that the leaders and the company Young India were allegedly involved in money laundering in relation to the fraudulent takeover of properties valued over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL). 

AJL is the publisher of the National Herald news platform (newspaper and web portal), owned by Young Indian Private Limited.

Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul are majority shareholders of Young Indian with 38 per cent shares held by each one of them. They were questioned for hours by the ED in this case a few years ago.

The ED had claimed its investigation has found that Young Indian, a private company beneficially owned by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, acquired AJL properties worth Rs 2,000 crore for a mere Rs 50 lakh, significantly undervaluing its worth. 

It further said that Young Indian and AJL properties were used for generation of further proceeds of crime in the form of bogus donations to the tune of Rs 18 crore, bogus advance rent to the tune of Rs 38 crore and bogus advertisements of Rs 29 crore.

Times When Charges Were Levelled Against The Gandhi Family

Indira Gandhi- In 1975, former prime minister Indira Gandhi was found guilty of election corruption—a charge she vehemently denied—and she was disqualified from office for six years by the Allahabad High Court. She was the first-ever prime minister to appear in the doct and was cross-examined in the High Court. 

Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court had found Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices in the 1971 election. Sinha declared the election verdict in the Rae Bareilly constituency “null and void”. The verdict was believed to have led to the imposition of the National Emergency on June 25, 1975.

However, Justice VR Krishna Iyer of the Supreme Court, on 24 June, 1975, granted a conditional stay on Justice Sinha’s verdict, allowing Gandhi to continue as the Prime Minister, but debarred her from taking part in parliamentary proceedings and draw salary as an MP.

Sanjay Gandhi- During the National Emergency, Sanjay Gandhi was accused of nepotism and corruption in the Maruti deal. The government had issued a letter of intent in September 1970 to set up a car manufacturing facility to produce small and cheap cars in India. Though there were several applicants, Sanjay Gandhi was the lone applicant to be granted license. The Haryana government cleared 3,000 acres of land for Sanjay’s Maruti factory, while around 15,000 farmers were evicted of their land. The episode had led to criticism over the alleged nepotism in the then Congress government.

While Maruti suffered losses, another company started by Sanjay – Maruti Technical Services – received “handsome remuneration from the car maker.” The company floated a third company called Maruti Heavy Vehicles, which refitted old scrapped road rollers and sold them as new, while the buyers were the Congress ruled states. 

Rajiv Gandhi- The Bofors scandal was one of the worst political scandals to hit independent India in the late 1980s. In 1986, India had signed a Rs 1,437-crore deal with Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors for the supply of 400 155 mm Howitzer guns for the Army. A year later, in 1987, a Swedish radio channel alleged that the company had bribed top Indian politicians and defence personnel to secure the contract. Rajiv Gandhi, the prime minister at the time, was accused of taking bribes and the scandal rocked the Congress-led government. In 1990, the CBI lodged an FIR against the then president of Bofors and the middlemen. The Congress lost the 1989 general elections as a result of the controversy.

Robert Vadra- Rober Vadra, the husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi and brother-in-law of Rahul Gandhi, is appearing before the ED for his questioning in a 2008 Haryana land deal linked money laundering case. The case pertains to a land deal between Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality and real estate firm DLF Universal Ltd. The BJP has accused Vadra of corruption and misuse of political power under the Congress-led UPA government in the Centre.