ED shock to congress party
The Enforcement Directorate today gave a big shock to the Congress party by attaching Rs. 952 Crore worth of properties in connection with the National Herald Case. Following a complaint in 2014, ED has started investigating the National Herald Case. It is known that Associated Journals was established by freedom fighters in the year 1937 and Young India Ltd, acquired it and has been publishing the National Herald Newspaper.
Though AJL suspended publication of the newspapers in 2008, the company owed Rs. 90.21 Crores to Congress in loans. Reportedly in 2010, Suman Dubey and Satyan Gangaram Pitroda founded a new company named Young Indian, and Rahul Gandhi was appointed the director of the company. A few days later, AICC transferred all of the AJL loans to Young Indian. It was alleged that the Gandhi family had played a huge role in acquiring properties of AJL for nominal prices.
Now, a provisional order was issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Associated Journals Ltd and Young India. National Herald’s office premises at ITO in Delhi, the Nehru Bhawan at Mall Avenue near Kaiserbagh in Lucknow, and the Herald House in Mumbai were some of the assets that were attached by the ED.