‘AICC tried to revive AJL’: Rahul Gandhi’s counsel in Herald case | India News

Rahul Gandhi (File picture)

NEW DELHI: All India Congress Committee (AICC) was not attempting to promote property of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the corporate which printed National Herald newspaper, however reasonably attempting to save the establishment that was part of the liberty motion, senior advocate R S Cheema, representing Rahul Gandhi, advised a Delhi courtroom Saturday. Cheema made his submissions earlier than the courtroom of particular choose Vishal Gogne, which is listening to arguments on the purpose of cognisance of the chargesheet filed in opposition to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and others in National Herald cash laundering case.“In post-Independence period, it (AJL) was never a commercial institution. We (AICC) were trying to retrieve an institution which is part of the freedom movement heritage. The problem was not recovering the loan (given to AJL) but to revive it, to see that it comes back on the rails. AICC was not looking for profit from sales. This is a squinted version,” Cheema stated.According to ED, Sonia and Rahul, together with others and a personal firm, Young Indian Pvt Ltd, conspired to launder cash by fraudulently usurping AJL’s properties valued at over Rs 2,000 crore in change for a mortgage of Rs 90 crore. Cheema stated ED’s allegations have been “crude lies”. The senior advocate stated ED made unwarranted inferences in opposition to Rahul by wrongly assuming that he was the particular person in-charge of AICC’s affairs as its basic secretary in 2010. According to the occasion structure, AICC has a number of basic secretaries at a degree in time, and no certainly one of them may very well be in-charge of its affairs, Cheema identified. The counsel additional acknowledged Sonia, then Congress president, was wrongly inferred as particular person in-charge of AICC when the mortgage was assigned to AJL. The arguments will proceed in opposition to different accused, together with Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, Sunil Bhandari, Young Indian and Dotex Merchandise Pvt Ltd, on Monday.