National Herald case: ED reverses own order, set to probe Sonia, Rahul

“…cognizance taken by the judicial magistrate on police report or enquiry report or on the basis of complainant’s evidence, the judicial magistrate functions after finding the prima facie case against the accused after application of judicial mind. While registering the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the paramount consideration should be only the potential money laundering aspect,” the circular stated.

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This, in effect, reversed a circular issued by Katoch on January 14 in which ED officers were told that “for registering an ECIR, the requirement of FIR under Section 157 of Code of Criminal Procedure is essential”.

The January 14 circular was cited as a reason for ED not pursuing the National Herald case. Katoch was removed on August 19.

In June this year, The Indian Express reported that the Income Tax planned to issue notices to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi asking them to pay tax and penalty on “income” of Rs 1,300 crore that investigators believe they earned from the transfer of shares of Associated Journal Ltd (AJL), publishers of the now-defunct party newspaper The National Herald.

Officials said the move followed investigations conducted on a complaint received from BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who alleged that the Gandhis misappropriated AJL’s assets while transferring their shares to the newly formed Young India Ltd.

Meanwhile, the Press Trust of India reported that the ED had registered a money laundering case arising out of a land grab case in Bikaner in Rajasthan involving a firm allegedly linked to Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi.

“A criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been registered by the ED. It will soon issue summons and question the accused involved including some unknown private entities,” PTI quoted ED sources in its report.

The ED did not take the name of Vadra or any company linked to him in the FIR but it has named some state government officials and some of the “land mafia”, the PTI report stated.

Responding to the PTI report, Suman Jyoti Khaitan of Suman Khaitan & Co, lawyers for Skylight Hospitality Private Limited and Robert Vadra, in an email statement to The Indian Express, called the report “completely false and mischievous” and said it was “being circulated by un-named sources on behalf of the Modi government in order to wreak political vendetta against our clients”. Khaitan said “no case has been registered against our clients in Bikaner or elsewhere in Rajasthan with regard to any wrongdoing”.