Court declines cognisance of ED complaint against Gandhis

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday refused to take cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate's money laundering case against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others for their alleged involvement in the National Herald case.

Special judge Vishal Gogne said he rejected the ED's prosecution complaint (equivalent of a charge sheet) because it is based on a private complaint and not on any FIR. The decision is based "on a pure question of law" and not on the "merits of the allegations," he clarified.

In his detailed order, the judge said the complaint was "impermissible in law" as it was not founded on an FIR relating to a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). "Despite receiving the complaint from Subramaniam Swamy, the CBI refused to register an FIR. However, the ED filed an ECIR when no FIR registered was in place in relation to the scheduled offence," the order observed.


"Upon first having shared information with the CBI in 2014 and then having waited for seven years for the CBI to act, the ED simply inverted the template of money laundering being consequential to the predicate offence by recording its own ECIR on June 30, 2021," the judge said, criticising the ED move. "This act was not a mere expression of the independent nature of the ED as an agency to probe proceeds of crime. It rather reflected a unilateral overreach of the other law enforcement agency viz. the CBI on one hand and an ill-advised outpacing of the scheme of the PMLA itself." The judge said the PMLA perceives the scheduled offence to be recorded and commenced for investigation as the first step and the probe into money laundering as the second step. "Perhaps, the ED should have stayed as staid as the CBI." The judge, however, noted that the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has already lodged an FIR in the case. Both the ED and EOW can investigate the matter based on that FIR, he said.

"In view of the above clarifications and the fact that the EOW and the ED have the right to independently examine and investigate the allegations in the said FIR, as also consequent information so obtained, there is no occasion for the court to interject in the said prerogative of the two agencies," the order said. "The continuing investigation by these two agencies may lead to uncovering of additional evidence or accused," it said, adding that "the present order does not efface either the existing allegations or curtail further investigation."

The special court held that the "present investigation by the EOW (upon the scheduled offence) and the possibility of further investigation by the ED (in light of the investigation by the EOW) makes it imprudent for the court to render any prima facie finding qua the existing allegations." The ED plans to appeal against the order, people aware of the matter told ET. Also, the federal agency will file a fresh prosecution complaint after the completion of investigation by Delhi Police and its filing of charge sheet, they said.