National Herald Case: Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in the court that the allegation leveled by the Enforcement Directorate on Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in the National Herald case is very strange. According to him, this is a case of money laundering in which there is neither any property, nor has the property been used.
New Delhi: Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi has taken the lead on behalf of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case related to Congress. He described the allegations of money laundering leveled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on senior Congress leaders in the court on Friday as a strange case. He said that this is a case of money laundering in which there is no property, no use or display of property. Singhvi said this when he was starting the argument on behalf of the defense in the National Herald case.
Singhvi’s response to ED’s allegations
The ED has alleged that the Gandhi family has a 76 percent stake in Young Indian (YI). Young Indian is accused of usurping the property of Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in exchange for a loan of ₹ 90 crore. Singhvi, while responding to these allegations, said that all this was done to make AJL debt free. He also said that the court does not have the right to hear this case.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi gave these arguments in the court
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, while responding to the allegations of ED, said that this step was taken to make AJL debt free. Every company has the right under the law to eliminate its debt. Singhvi said every company does this. They transfer their debt from one unit to another. This makes the company debt free. He said that Young Indian is a non-profit company. This means that it cannot give dividends, allowances, salary or bonus to anyone.
ED said – this is a classic case of money laundering
ED said in the court that this is a classic case of money laundering. The agency also alleged that Young Indian was used to usurp AJL’s assets worth ₹2,000 crore. AJL publishes the National Herald newspaper. The federal agency filed a prosecution complaint (equivalent to a chargesheet) in a local court on April 9 against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, M/s Young India, M/s Dotex Merchandise and Sunil Bhandari.
What will be the court’s decision now?
The court will decide to take cognizance of the chargesheet only after hearing the arguments of the agency and the accused. Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that ED’s claim that Young Indian usurped the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL) is wrong. He said that YI had helped AJL to become debt free. Young Indian is a non-profit company, so it cannot give profit to anyone.
Curated by: Ruchir Shukla
Ruchir Shukla has been associated with Navbharat Times Online since February 2020. First worked in a news agency, then after TV journalism, entered digital media. Has been working in digital media for almost 10 years. Has a special interest in all kinds of news like politics, crime, positive.
Courtesy : Hindi News