India’s Gandhis charged in money laundering case amid opposition outcry

The India opposition Congress Party said it would organize national demonstrations on Wednesday after the country’s financial crimes agency charged senior Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and other money laundering.

The Directorate of the Application of the Act (ED) presented its conclusions on Tuesday in a Delhi court, accusing the Gandhis of forming a screen company 20 billion rubles ($ 233 million; 176 million pounds sterling).

Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh qualified the charges “Vendetta and intimidation policy“By the government.

The Gandhis who have already denied any reprehensible act did not comment on the accusations.

The investigation also appoints other members of the Congress Party, including its tool manager Sam Pitroda, according to the Anima news agency.

The Directorate of the Application of the Act (ED) began to investigate the case in 2021 after a private complaint filed by Subramanian Swamy, member of the Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party.

Swamy allegedly alleged that the Gandhis used parties to resume Journée Limited (AJL), which has published the Herald National Journal, now disappeared, and properties acquired illegally with a value of millions of people via AJL.

The Congress argues that it has bail out the publisher because of its historic heritage and had loaned more than 900 million rupees to AJL over the years.

In 2010, AJL became without debt by exchanging its debt by equity and by attributing actions to a newly created company called Young Indian, which, according to the Party, is a “non -profit company” without dividends paid to its shareholders and administrators.

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are among the administrators of Young Indian and they each have 38% of the company. The remaining 24% belong to the Congress leaders, including Motilal Vora and Sam Pitroda.

Last week, the law enforcement department said that the young Indian had acquired AJL properties worth 20 billion rupees for only 5 m, considerably undervaluating their value.

He also served several Notice to enter the assets Is worth 6.6 billion rupees in several Indian cities – including Delhi and Mumbai – which are linked to the young Indian.

The case should be heard on April 25.

In recent years, the opposition has repeatedly accused the government Narera Modi of the armament of the Directorate of the Application of the Act against its political opponents.

According to data compiled by Reuters in 2024, the agency summoned, interviewed or attacked around 150 opposition politicians since Modi came to power in 2014.

Last year, ED arrested the former Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, as part of an alcohol alcohol just a month before the main general elections. He spent five months in prison before being released on bail.

The national newspaper Herald was founded in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian Prime Minister and great-grandfather of Rahul Gandhi.

He stopped publication in 2008 after having encountered financial problems, but was then acquired by the congress in 2010 and relaunched as a digital media in 2017.

It was published by Associated Journée Limited (AJL), which was created in 1937 with 5,000 Freedom Fighters as an audience. AJL also published Qaumi Awaz in Ourdou and Navjeevan in Hindi.

The National Herald has become known for its association with the struggle of freedom of India and its nationalist position.

Nehru often wrote columns to strong order, which led the British government to ban the newspaper in 1942. It reopened three years later.

After India was independent in 1947, Nehru resigned from his post as president of the newspaper to become Prime Minister.

But the congress continued to play a huge role in the formation of the newspaper ideology.

In a message to the National Herald on his silver jubilee in 1963, Nehru spoke of the document “in favor of the Congress policy” while keeping “an independent perspective”.

Over the years, the National Herald has become an English leader Leader, supported by the Congress Party, until it closed in 2008 after years of financial problems.

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