Herald Case: Court notices to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others

A local court on Friday issued notices to senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and others charge sheeted by Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald newspaper case.

The court held that "notice is required to be issued to the proposed accused persons for hearing on the question of cognisance" of the prosecution complaint (equivalent to a charge sheet) filed by ED last month.

Referring to Section 23 of BNSS, the court ruled that the said provision grants an accused "the right to be heard on the aspect of cognizance, is available in favour of the proposed accused in a complaint pertaining to section 4 PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act)".

The court held that "the right of the accused to be heard at the cognizance stage must be liberally applied to proceedings under PMLA before the special court as a continuation of the recent jurisprudence on PMLA, which has read the constitutional mandate and rights into the PMLA".

The court thus ordered that "notice be issued to the proposed accused persons in order that they may be heard on the question of cognizance upon the present complaint". The court has posted the matter for hearing on May 8.

ED had filed a prosecution complaint (equivalent to a charge sheet) against Sonia, Rahul, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, M/s Young Indian, M/s Dotex Merchandise and Sunil Bhandari in a Delhi court on April 9. Sonia and Rahul have been charge sheeted under PMLA for the first time.

The accused have been charged with money laundering involving proceeds of crime valued at over ₹5,000 crore. Sonia and Rahul were repeatedly questioned at ED headquarters here in 2022. ED had launched a PMLA probe in 2021. ED filed the charge sheet after collecting "money trail, documentary evidence and recording statements of accused and witnesses".