India's Enforcement Directorate (ED) today filed a chargesheet against Congress MPs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and Sam Pitroda, the party's overseas unit chief, in the National Herald money laundering case.

Special judge Vishal Gogne examined the charge-sheet filed on April 9 on the point of cognizance and posted the matter for further proceedings on April 25.

The ED investigation into the National Herald began in 2021 after a court in Delhi took cognizance of a complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on June 26, 2014.

This is the first time a chargesheet has been filed against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

The complaint, the ED said, highlighted a "criminal conspiracy" by several prominent political figures, including Sonia and her MP-son Rahul for their alleged involvement in money laundering over the "fraudulent" takeover of properties valued over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) which is the publisher of the National Herald news platform (newspaper and web portal) and owned by Young Indian Private Limited.

The charge sheet also named late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, and Suman Dubey.

The Congress today reacted sharply to the charges against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, saying the agency's move was "nothing but the politics of vendetta and intimidation" carried out by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Congress chief spokesman Jairam Ramesh took to X to say that "Seizing the assets of the National Herald is a state-sponsored crime masquerading as the rule of law. Filing charge-sheets against Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and some others is nothing but the politics of vendetta and intimidation by the PM and the HM (Home Minister) gone completely berserk. The Congress and its leadership will not be silenced."

Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul are majority shareholders of Young Indian with 38 percent 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.

Also, the Enforcement Directorate today recorded the statement of Sonia Gandhi's son-n-law Robert Vadra, businessman and husband of senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in connection with a 2008 land deal case.