New Delhi, May 2 (PTI) A Delhi court on Friday issued notices to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald money laundering case.
Special judge Vishal Gogne said their “right to be heard” was available at the time of cognisance of the chargesheet.
“Right to be heard at any stage breathes life into fair trial,” the judge said, posting the matter on May 8.
The judge also issued notice to Congress leader Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey, and “Young Indian”, Dotex Merchandise Pvt Ltd and Sunil Bhandari.
The chargesheet was filed under Sections 3 (money laundering) and 4 (punishment for money laundering) of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In a 14-page order, the judge observed the “prosecuting agency ED does not come to any detriment if the accused is permitted to make submissions on the question of cognisance”.
“In this adherence to the principles of fair hearing, the right to be heard is not inconsistent with any of the powers vested in the ED for investigation or the presumptions as well as burden of proof stipulated under the PMLA,” the order said.
During a brief hearing, additional solicitor general S V Raju, representing the ED, said the probe agency was “not opposing such a notice precisely because it is votary of fair trial”.
The court further said, “Besides, the proviso to Section 223 of BNSS (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) is a salutary provision in furtherance of the right to be heard, as a part of fair trial. It is designed to protect accused persons against improper implication by permitting them to make submissions prior to the court taking cognisance of the offences in question.”
The BNSS, the court noted, was therefore a progressive legislation and recorded among its objectives and reasons a “citizens centric criminal procedure” being the “need of the hour”.
Section 223 of BNSS grants an accused the right to be heard on the aspect of cognisance.
This “benevolent intent” of the BNSS should be read in favour of accused persons rather than the investigation agencies when a right to be heard is to be accorded at any stage of the proceedings, the court added.
“To summarise, the court finds that notice is required to be issued to the proposed accused persons for hearing on the question of cognisance upon the present complaint in terms of the proviso to section 223 BNSS. It is thus directed that notice be issued to the proposed accused persons in order that they may be heard on the question of cognisance upon the present complaint,” the judge said.
The ED, which filed its chargesheet recently, began its probe in 2021 after a magistrate court took cognisance of a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on June 26, 2014.
The complaint, the ED said, highlighted a “criminal conspiracy” by several prominent political figures, including the first family of the Congress party led by Sonia, her MP son Rahul, late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes aside from Dubey, Pitroda and a private company Young Indian for their alleged involvement in money laundering in relation to the fraudulent takeover of properties valued over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL).
Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul 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 ago.
