Chandigarh, April 22 Congress leader and Member of Parliament (MP), Manish Tewari, on Tuesday said the charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald case against Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, was an act of sheer political vendetta.
Manish Tewari told the media here that the case would come crashing down in the courts as nothing unlawful or illegal was done.
The Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which had been founded by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and other senior leaders and freedom fighters to bring out nationalistic newspapers like the National Herald, Navjeevan and Qaumi Awaz, had run into massive losses and had accrued liabilities and outstanding of about Rs 90 crore, he said.
“As is the standard corporate practice to clean the balance sheets, a new company Young Indian Ltd (YIL) was incorporated,” the former Union Minister said.
He said the Congress paid off the AJL’s Rs 90 crore debt over 10 years and acquired its shares and the shares were subsequently transferred to Young Indian Ltd in a standard corporate practice of debt swap.
Manish Tewari who is a lawyer, pointed out that it is a standard legal practice to convert the debt into equity and that was done in the case of AJL also.
Manish Tewari quoted the example of the Vodafone company, whose debt the government of India converted into equity.
Besides, Manish Tewari referred to the Rs 16 lakh crore debt waiver to myriad corporates by various banks.
Challenging the contention of the complainant that it was an attempt to grab AJL’s properties, he said of the six properties the AJL owned across the country, only one was freehold while five others were on lease and nobody can sell those properties.
Besides, the YIL which has acquired the shares of the AJL is a “not-for-profit” company, which means that even when it earns profits, it cannot give dividends to any shareholders nor can any of the directors be given any salary or any perks, Manish Tewari said.
Interestingly, the trial on complaint on the basis of which the ED has filed the charge sheet is effectively stayed, Manish Tewari said while referring to complainant Subramanian Swamy having got a stay on the trial himself from the Delhi High Court.
The former Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting said the BJP government also knows that there is nothing in the case and it will not stand any legal scrutiny.
He added, the BJP-led NDA government wants to build a perception to malign the Congress leadership in the eyes of the people of the country.
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