Have a look at the timeline of the National Herald case as ED files chargesheet against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
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00:00That's Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi hugging her husband and entrepreneur Robert Wadra
00:13before he entered the Enforcement Directorate office on 16th April of 2025.
00:18After hours of grilling Wadra, the ED filed a charge sheet against Congress MPs Sonia Gandhi,
00:23Rahul Gandhi and overseas Congress Chief Sam Pitroda among others
00:26in the alleged National Herald money laundering case.
00:29The charges are that the Gandhis were allegedly involved in a fraudulent takeover of assets
00:33worth Rs. 2,000 crore, belonging to the newspaper The National Herald back in 2011.
00:39Massive protests erupted by Congress workers as the party called the charge sheet political vendetta,
00:44a witch hunt and a misuse of agencies.
00:47But let's go back in time to see what the National Herald case was actually all about.
00:51In 1938, Jawaharlal Nehru started The National Herald along with 5,000 other freedom fighters as shareholders.
00:58Initially meant to voice liberal concerns, the paper became a mouthpiece of the Indian National
01:02Congress post-independence.
01:04The newspaper was published by AJL or the Associated Journals Limited, which was Nehru's brainchild
01:10but did not belong to any particular person.
01:12By 2008, the National Herald was incurring losses and in 2011, AJL transferred its holdings to
01:19Young India Limited or YIL.
01:20YIL was set up in 2010 and then General Secretary of the Congress party Rahul Gandhi was the director.
01:27He, along with Sonia Gandhi, held 76% of the shares of YIL, while the others are mostly held by other Congress leaders.
01:34The Congress party has maintained that YIL was created with an aim of charity and with no commercial purposes since day one.
01:41But, in 2012, BJP leader and advocate Subramanian Swamy filed a complaint in the trial court.
01:47He claimed that YIL had taken over assets of the defunct media outlet in a malicious manner, with a gain of assets worth 2,000 crore.
01:55From 2014 to 2025, the ED has been probing financial transactions between the two companies, including the shareholding structure.
02:03The Congress calls them merely commercial transactions to transfer shares and that the allegations by Swamy are politically motivated.
02:09In 2016, the Supreme Court had exempted all parties from making personal appearances for the case but didn't quash proceedings against them.
02:17Cut to 2025, the National Herald case is back and with a charge sheet.
02:22What are your thoughts on this case? Let us know in the comments below.