'Not mother of democracy, father of dictatorship': Kapil Sibal slams govt over ED notices in National Herald case

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday accused the government of using probe agencies to "paralyse" the Congress and described the development of the Enforcement Directorate issuing notices to take possession of immovable assets in the National Herald case as an "assault on democracy".

"In lip service, we are the mother of democracy but in reality you are the father of dictatorship. They (BJP) want to do their politics on Hindu-Muslim agenda and finish off the opposition," Sibal said in a press conference.

His remarks come a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) stated it has served notices to take possession of immovable assets worth Rs 661 crore that it had attached as part of a money laundering probe linked to Congress-controlled National Herald newspaper and the Associated Journals Limited (AJL).

Simultaneously, the notices have been affixed at "conspicuous part of these properties" located at Herald House at ITO (5A, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg) in Delhi, in the Bandra(E) area (Plot No 2, Survey No 341) of Mumbai and the AJL building located at Bisheshwar Nath Road (Property No.1) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, on Friday.

The notices primarily seek vacation of the premises to be taken over by the ED.

Speaking on the issue, Sibal said, "The possession notice is aimed at taking over these properties of the newspaper in which Congress offices are running to paralyse the party."

"What is the offense? Why have you waited for 13 years? Why? Because you want to grab the property. You want to paralyse the Congress party, take possession of all the properties so that they cannot function. The properties are spread across the country and are worth 600 crore that is what they allege, so they take them over, paralyse the Congress so that it has no office to operate from," the senior advocate and Independent Rajya Sabha MP said.

"From what I know is the Congress does not have much money so it will not be able to function as a political party. This is an assault on democracy. This is an assault on what we as a republic stand for. This is an unfortunate event that is reflective of the mindset of this government," he added.

Sibal said it reflects the pettiness of a government that uses agencies to destroy the opposition.

"They will take all those who were in the opposition in their ministries, make them Rajya Sabha members, give them cabinet posts in states and against whom they have made public allegations of fraud and corruption. They will take those people and there is no ED then," he added, slamming the BJP.

The Rajya Sabha MP claimed the government will eventually also come after the media because "we are going the way of a nation that is functioning on the basis that even though we profess we are democratic, we are just the opposite".

Sibal pointed out that National Herald was set up way back by the freedom fighters, who were shareholders in the newspaper which was meant to spread the message of freedom and India being together and moving forward.

Noting that it was for charitable purposes, he said National Herald did not have enough money at that time and the Congress gave it Rs 90 crore over the years and that debt could not be repaid.

"In the meantime, National Herald had assets throughout the country. Young India was set up for purposes of transferring a sum of Rs 50 lakhs of the loan amount. A Section 25 company was set up... Section 25 company is a company where the shareholders are not entitled to any profit," said Sibal.

"The shareholders cannot own the property, which is owned by the company. Neither Rahul Gandhi nor Sonia Gandhi, nor anyone else, don't own the property. It is settled law," he added.

Sibal accused the BJP of working to trouble its political opponents, including the Congress chief ministers in various states.

"You know that CBI has to take consent of the state to enter or if they have a court order. But the ED can go across, so they have used the ED to destabilise governments, it happened in the case of Hemant Soren, they also tried this against Siddaramaiah where they could not succeed," the former Congress leader said.

"In the case of P Chidambaram, they arrested him and kept on telling the court he has properties abroad, how many years passed? You destroyed a person, party's reputation. Exactly what is happening in the National Herald case," he added.

Sibal, who was a Union minister during the UPA 1 and UPA 2 governments, quit the Congress in May 2022 and was elected to the Rajya Sabha as an Independent member with the Samajwadi Party's support.

The ED has said in a statement that it has served the relevant documents to the respective registrar of properties where the assets are located.

"A notice... has also been served to Jindal South West Projects Limited which occupies the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors at Herald House, Bandra (E), Mumbai, to transfer the rent/lease amount every month in favour of the director, Directorate of Enforcement," it said.

The action has been taken under Section (8) and Rule 5(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) that talks about the procedure of taking possession of assets attached by the ED and then confirmed by the adjudicating authority (of the PMLA).

These immovable assets worth Rs 661 crore, apart from shares of AJL worth Rs 90.2 crore, were attached by the ED in November 2023 to "secure the proceeds of crime and to prevent the accused form dissipating the same." The Adjudicating Authority confirmed this order in April last year.

According to the ED, the total "proceeds of crime" in the case was Rs 988 crore.

The Congress had earlier termed the investigation "petty vendetta tactics" and dubbed the ED a "coalition partner" of the BJP.

The ED investigation began in 2021 after the Metropolitan Magistrate at Patiala House Courts in Delhi took cognisance of a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on June 26, 2014.

he complaint, the ED said, highlighted a "criminal conspiracy" by several prominent political figures, including the first family of the Congress party led by Sonia Gandhi, her MP son Rahul Gandhi, apart from late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes and also Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and a private company Young Indian for alleged involvement in a money laundering scheme related to the fraudulent takeover of properties valued over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to the AJL.

"The legal proceedings against the accused have faced challenges but have been upheld by both the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India, allowing the investigation to proceed," the ED said.

AJL is the publisher of the National Herald news platform (newspaper and web portal) and it is owned by Young Indian Private Limited.

Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are majority shareholders of Young Indian with 38 per cent shares held by each one of them. They were questioned for hours by the ED in this case a few years back.

The ED claimed its investigation has "conclusively" found that Young Indian, a private company "beneficially owned" by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, "acquired" AJL properties worth Rs 2,000 crore for a mere Rs 50 lakh, significantly undervaluing its worth.

"Young Indian and AJL properties were used for generation of further proceeds of crime in the form of bogus donations to the tune of Rs 18 crore, bogus advance rent to the tune of Rs 38 crore and bogus advertisements of Rs 29 crore," the ED has alleged.