The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has served notices to M/s Jindal South West Projects Limited, which occupies the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors of Herald House in Bandra (East), Mumbai, directing them to transfer the monthly rent and lease amount to the Director, Directorate of Enforcement. This action is part of the ongoing investigation into the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) money laundering case.
The ED has alleged that the attached properties were illegally acquired and laundered through a complex political-financial nexus involving the Congress leadership.
Notices were also issued to property registrars in Mumbai, Delhi, and Lucknow to take possession of immovable assets worth ₹661 crore, which had been previously attached as part of the money laundering probe linked to the Congress-controlled National Herald newspaper and AJL.
Possession notices, confirmed by the ED’s Adjudicating Authority, were affixed at “conspicuous parts of the properties” located at Herald House at ITO (5A, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg) in Delhi; BKC, Plot No. 2, Survey No. 341 in Mumbai; and the AJL building on Bisheshwar Nath Road in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, on Friday. These notices primarily seek to vacate the premises for takeover by the federal agency.
The immovable assets worth ₹661 crore, in addition to AJL shares valued at ₹90.2 crore, were attached by the ED in November 2023 to “secure the proceeds of crime and to prevent the accused from dissipating the same.” This followed the Metropolitan Magistrate at Patiala House Courts in Delhi taking cognisance of a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
The ED’s probe into the complaint highlighted a “criminal conspiracy” involving several prominent political figures, including members of the Congress party's first family — Sonia Gandhi and her MP son Rahul Gandhi — as well as late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, along with Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, and the private company Young Indian, all allegedly involved in a money laundering scheme related to the fraudulent takeover of AJL properties valued at over ₹2,000 crore.
“Young Indian and AJL properties were used for the generation of further proceeds of crime in the form of bogus donations amounting to ₹18 crore, bogus advance rent worth ₹38 crore, and bogus advertisements totaling ₹29 crore,” said the ED in a media statement.
AJL is the publisher of the National Herald news platform, owned by Young Indian Private Limited, where Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are majority shareholders, each holding 38% of the shares.
The ED has alleged that its investigation has “conclusively” found that Young Indian, a private company “beneficially owned” by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, “acquired” AJL properties worth ₹2,000 crore for a mere ₹50 lakh, significantly undervaluing their real market value.
