National Herald case: ED 'temporarily seals' Young Indian office, security stepped up near Congress HQ

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday temporarily sealed the premises of Young Indian (YI) in the Congress-owned National Herald office in Delhi as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation.

The temporary seal has been put in order to "preserve the evidence" which could not be collected as authorised representatives were not present during the raids on Tuesday, PTI quoted sources as saying said. The rest of the National Herald office is open for use, they added.

The notice pasted under signature of the ED investigating officer outside the YI office space said it cannot be opened "without prior permission" from the agency.

Officials said the ED team had emailed the principal officer/incharge of the office to open the premises for it to carry out raids but the response was awaited.

The probe agency took the action a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out raids at 12 locations in the national capital and at other places in connection with the National Herald case in which top Congress leaders are accused of violating norms.

After the sealing of the office, the Congress alleged that Delhi Police blocked the road outside the Congress headquarters. "Delhi Police blocking the road to AICC Headquarters has become a norm rather than an exception! Why have they just done so is mysterious...," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.

However, a senior Delhi police officer said, "We have received inputs from our special branch that some protesters might gather at the Congress Office situated on Akbar Road. So, as a preventive measure, we have put barricades and deputed our personnel to avoid any untoward situation."

Earlier today, the Congress alleged that the Enforcement Directorate has become a "tool" in the hands of the BJP-led Centre to "destroy" the Opposition parties.

Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also said that the party was not being allowed to raise the issue of alleged "misuse" of the ED by the Centre in Parliament.

The National Herald is published by the Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL), and its holding company is Young Indian.

Officers of the federal agency searched the office of the National Herald located in the 'Herald House' building at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg near ITO in central Delhi. The office is registered in the name of AJL.

According to officials, the location of a shell (dummy) company in Kolkata involved in the case, has also been covered in the raids.

The Congress party had called the ED action against its leaders "political vendetta", saying there was no money laundering in the case.

The Congress party has said it gave a Rs 90 crore loan to an ailing AJL between 2001-02 and 2010-11 and later, in 2011, the shares of AJL were allotted to Young Indian and this debt was converted into equity and the loan was extinguished in the books of the AJL.

The ED claims these transactions attract anti-money laundering charges as a complex web of transactions and routing of funds were undertaken by the party and its leaders to acquire AJL's assets worth multiple crores of rupees.

The Gandhis are understood to have told the ED during their separate questioning sessions that no personal assets were made in the Congress-AJL-National Herald deal as Young Indian was a "not-for-profit" company established under section 25 of the Companies Act.

They also told the ED that AJL continues to have possession of all its assets and Young Indian neither "owns nor controls" these properties.

Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and majority shareholders in Young Indian. Like her son, the Congress president also has 38 per cent shareholding.

The ED action in the case was initiated after the agency late last year registered a fresh case under the PMLA after a trial court here took cognisance of an Income Tax department probe against Young Indian based on a private criminal complaint by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds, with Young Indian paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that Associated Journals Limited owed to the Congress.

In February last year, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Gandhis seeking their response to Swamy's plea.

According to the ED, assets worth about Rs 800 crore are "owned" by the AJL and the agency wants to know from the Gandhis how a "not-for-profit company like Young Indian was undertaking commercial activities of renting out its land and building assets".

The Congress party has said that the Income Tax Department has valued AJL's properties at worth about Rs 350 crore.