Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri addresses a press conference at BJP HQ in New Delhi on April 17, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday dismissed as baseless the Congress party’s charge that “political vendetta” was behind the Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet against its senior leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. The BJP asserted that it was an “open-and-shut case of fraud, corruption, and money laundering”.
At a press conference, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the Congress workers should protest against their own leadership for allegedly misusing a charitable entity and the party’s resources for their own personal gain, instead of protesting outside the offices of the ED and Central government.
He said the publication of National Herald was stopped in 2008 and the case started in 2012-13, when the BJP was not in power at the Centre. “How is it that by paying a nominal amount of ₹50 lakh, they acquired assets worth ₹2,000 crore? It is an open and shut case of fraud, corruption, and money laundering,” he said.
Mr. Puri said in 2014, a metropolitan magistrate court had observed that Young Indian Limited appeared to be created “as a sham or a cloak” to convert public money for personal use. “The Congress party has used its lawyers to effectively somehow delay, side-track, and derail the case,” he alleged.
Citing the example of National Herald’s Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg property in Delhi, the BJP leader said the land was given at a subsidised rate of ₹1.25 lakh per acre in 1963 to run its press and office. However, he said, the press was shut in 2008 and the property was rented out for commercial purposes.
On Wednesday, former Law Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad had outlined the main charge against the Gandhis, stating that as majority shareholders of Young Indian, they “misappropriated” real estate worth thousands of crores belonging to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which owns the National Herald newspaper.
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In its chargesheet, the ED had alleged signification generation, possession, and use of proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹988 crore. It accused the persons involved in the case of fraudulently taking over properties valued over ₹2,000 crore belonging to the AJL after paying just ₹50 lakh, through Young Indian.
Mr. Prasad accused the Congress of issuing threats to the probe agency, and asked whether the party and the Gandhis believe in the due process of law or not. “We condemn the threats from the Congress. The Modi government will allow the law to take its own course,” he said.
Published – April 17, 2025 09:18 pm IST
