A Delhi court has rejected the Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering complaint against Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in the National Herald case. Special Judge Dr Vishal Gogne of the Central Distrcit’s Rouse Avenue Court No. 9 dismissed the prosecution complaint, equivalent to a chargesheet, citing key legal shortcomings. In a 117-pages judgement, the court observed that despite lengthy arguments and pleadings, vigrous pursuit by the agency was on a very errorenous footing and thus could not be tajken cognizance of.
Key Reasons for Dismissal
The court ruled the money laundering chargesheet was not maintainable without an FIR for the predicate offence, as the ED’s action stemmed from a private complaint by Subramanian Swamy rather than a police FIR. It emphasized that complaints under Section 200 CrPC by public persons cannot trigger ED investigations akin to those by police agencies. Cognizance was deemed impermissible since no FIR underpinned the scheduled offence.
Procedural Flaws Highlighted
Judge Gogne noted that ED’s ECIR and prosecution complaint lacked jurisdiction without a preceding FIR, distinguishing complaint cases from FIR-driven probes in evidence and trial viability. A public person’s complaint, even disclosing a scheduled offence, does not empower ED to pursue proceeds of crime. The court declined merits-based adjudication, focusing solely on pure questions of law.
“The complaint by Dr Subramanian Swamy and the resultant summoning order dated 26.06.14 do not confer authority upon the ED to have commenced investigation through an ECIR in the present allegations and to then have filed the present prosecution complaint,” the Court said.
“In sum, it has now become premature and imprudent for the court to decide the submissions made by the ED as well as the proposed accused in relation to the merits of the allegations, especially so when cognizance is liable to be declined on a pure question of law. Other arguments possibly live to fight another day,” the Court said.
Additional Observations
The ruling deemed it premature to assess ED or accused arguments on allegations’ substance, given ongoing EOW investigation and potential ED follow-up post-FIR. Despite Swamy’s 2014 complaint and summoning order, no FIR existed until recently, yet ED proceeded with ECIR in 2021. The complaint under PMLA Sections 3, 4, and 70 was dismissed outright.
Case Background
The dispute involves Young Indian Pvt Ltd acquiring Associated Journals Limited’s (AJL, National Herald publisher) debts for ₹50 lakh in 2010, then controlling ₹2,000 crore assets where Sonia and Rahul Gandhi held majority stakes. ED alleges misappropriation of Congress funds for personal gain, recently seeking possession of ₹661 crore AJL properties.
Congress – celebrates
The Congress party and all of its leaders took to social media crying foul play in houding the Gandhis in the the first place.