Trouble returns for Sonia, Rahul? ED decides to reopen National Herald case

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday decided to reopen the National Herald case, which allegedly involved Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, reported CNN-IBN. This comes a month after reports had suggested that the ED may close the case due to lack of evidence against the two leaders. According to the agency, a private non-profit company ‘Young Indian’ was formed in March 2011, with Sonia and Rahul holding 38 percent shares each, allegedly with the specific aim of taking over the liabilities of Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL). AJL is the parent company which owned National Herald and its Urdu version, Qaumi Awaz, all with money spent from the Congress coffers. [caption id=“attachment_2438726” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo. Image courtesy: PTI[/caption] The two newspapers folded up on 1 April, 2008. AJL’s liabilities of Rs 90.21 crore have been taken over by Young Indian for Rs.50 lakh, the entire amount paid by the Congress. Another Rs 1 crore was allegedly spent by Young Indian in renovating the newspaper’s headquarters, Herald House, at 5A, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. This amount too has been allegedly funnelled by the Congress as loan. Associated Journals is said to own real estate valued at over Rs 1,600 crore, including Delhi’s Herald House on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. In June last year, a metropolitan magistrate, while issuing summons to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, had said that the petitioner, Subramaniam Swamy, had established a prima facie case against them under sections related to misappropriation of property and criminal breach of trust. With inputs from agencies