Congress accused the BJP of inflating the National Herald case for political ends, saying the ruling reaffirmed its long-standing claim of misuse of central agencies.
BY PC Bureau
December 16, 2025: The Congress struck a defiant and celebratory note on Tuesday after a Delhi court refused to take cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet in the National Herald–Young Indian case, with senior party leaders saying the ruling had punctured the political narrative built around the matter and exposed a prosecution long high on noise but short on substance.
Leading the party’s legal defence, senior Congress leader and Chairman of the AICC Law, RTI and Human Rights Department Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the court’s order laid bare the fundamental infirmities of the case. Speaking after the verdict, Singhvi described the proceedings as flawed from the outset, arguing that the allegations collapsed under even basic legal scrutiny.
Singhvi said he had told the court that the case was “weird” at its very inception, pointing out that there was “not a millimetre movement of money or of immovable property” involved. All properties, he stressed, continued to remain with Associated Journals Limited (AJL). “Yet they allege money laundering,” he remarked, adding that the only change cited was AJL becoming 90 per cent owned by Young Indian, a not-for-profit company.
He underlined that creating not-for-profit entities to make companies debt-free is a common corporate practice. Share transfers, Singhvi argued, do not amount to laundering. Highlighting the structure of Young Indian, he said its directors—including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and the late Motilal Vora—are legally barred from drawing any personal benefit. “They cannot get one paisa as dividend, no profit, no dispersal, no car, building or staff,” he said, rejecting allegations of personal enrichment.
जो हम पिछले 12 साल से कहते और लिखते आ रहे हैं, वो आज साबित हो गया है।
जिस तरह ‘गैंग्स ऑफ गांधीनगर’ ED-CBI-IT जैसी सरकारी एजेंसियों को प्राइवेट आर्मी की तरह इस्तेमाल करता है, आज उसकी पोल खुल गई है।
राउज एवेन्यू कोर्ट ने ED द्वारा बनाए गए नेशनल हेराल्ड के फर्जी केस का संज्ञान… pic.twitter.com/7PrBejkYaU
— Congress (@INCIndia) December 16, 2025
READ: Court Rejects ED’s Money Laundering Charges Against Gandhis
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Calling the judgment “significant,” Singhvi noted that taking cognisance is the lowest judicial threshold in criminal proceedings. “It is very easy to take cognisance. If the court has refused to do even that, it means the case is not worth taking cognisance of,” he said. He accused the BJP of indulging in “halla gulla and shor” to build what he described as a “superstructure of exaggeration” around the case.
Singhvi also questioned the timing of the Delhi Police FIR, calling it a subsequent development aimed at curing a legal defect he had highlighted during arguments—namely, the absence of an FIR forming the basis of the ED’s money laundering complaint at the time it was filed.
Echoing the sentiment, AICC Media and Publicity Department Chairman Pawan Khera said the court order vindicated what the Congress had been saying for over a decade. In a sharp political attack, Khera alleged that central agencies such as the ED, CBI and Income Tax Department were being used as a “private army” by what he termed the “Gangs of Gandhinagar.”
READ:
When I started arguing the case, after that, in the arguments, I had told the court that this is a very weird case where there is not a millimetre movement of money or of immovable property. All the properties remain with AJL—yet they say there is money laundering!
AJL is now… pic.twitter.com/DWrPoaPkUa
— Congress (@INCIndia) December 16, 2025
Khera argued that the refusal by the Rouse Avenue Court to take cognisance of what he called a “fake” National Herald case exposed a broader conspiracy. He alleged that the case was politically motivated, aimed at weakening Rahul Gandhi at a time when, he claimed, Indian democracy was under severe strain. “This conspiracy is not just against Rahul Gandhi, but against the country and the fundamental rights of every Indian,” he said, adding that the opposition, led by Rahul Gandhi, had been entrusted by the people with the task of defending democracy—and was doing so resolutely.
Together, the Congress leaders framed the court’s order not merely as a legal relief, but as a political rebuttal to what they described as years of targeted prosecution and institutional misuse
