The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said that it attached properties worth Rs 751.9 crore in a money-laundering case against Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL), the company which owns various publications including National Herald.
The investigation agency claimed that both Congress-linked organisations were ‘beneficiaries’ of proceeds of crime and the assets included immovable properties.
The ED said that its probe in the money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act revealed that “AJL is in possession of proceeds of crime in the form of immovable properties spread across many cities of India such as Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow to the tune of Rs 661.69 crore and Young Indian (YI) is in possession of proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 90.21 crore in the form of investment in equity shares of AJL”.
The ED registered a case of money-laundering on the basis of process issued by a Delhi Court after taking cognisance of a private complaint vide order dated June 26, 2014.
The court held that seven accused people including Young India, prima facie committed offences of criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, dishonest misappropriation of property and criminal conspiracy of the IPC.
The court held that the accused hatched a criminal conspiracy to acquire properties worth hundreds of crores of AJL through a special purpose vehicle, Young Indian.
The ED said that AJL was given land on concessional rates in various cities of India for the purpose of publishing newspapers.
"AJL closed its publishing operations in 2008 and started using the properties for commercial purposes. AJL had to repay a loan of Rs 90.21 crore to All India Congress Committee (AICC), however, the AICC treated the said loan of Rs 90.21 crore as non-recoverable from AJL and sold it for Rs 50 lakh to a newly- incorporated company Young Indian without any source of income to pay even Rs 50 lakh," the ED said.
"By their action, the shareholders of AJL as well as donors of the Congress were cheated by the office- bearers of AJL and Congress Party," the ED claimed.
The ED said that its probe revealed that after purchasing the loan of Rs 90.21 crore from AICC, YI demanded either repayment of loan or allotment of equity shares of AJL to it.
"AJL held an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) and passed a resolution to increase share capital and issue fresh shares worth Rs 90.21 crore to YI. With this fresh allotment of shares, shareholding of more than 1,000 shareholders was reduced to a mere one per cent and AJL became subsidiary company of YI. YI also took control over properties of AJL," the ED claimed.