India’s Opposition Leaders Charged With Money Laundering

India’s financial crimes agency charged Congress Party leaders Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia, with money laundering this week, in a case that the opposition group called political persecution by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Reuters reported Wednesday. 

On Tuesday, India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a complaint in a New Delhi court accusing the Gandhis and other senior Congress Party figures of using a shell company to illegally acquire property worth more than $230 million tied to the now-defunct National Herald newspaper.  

The case – scheduled to be heard on April 25 – stems from a 2021 probe into a complaint by a member of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who alleged that the Gandhis misused party funds to take control of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of the National Herald, the BBC wrote. 

The newspaper was founded in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister and Rahul Gandhi’s great-grandfather. The paper ceased operations in 2008 after the publisher ran into financial troubles, but was later relaunched as a digital outlet under Congress’s stewardship. 

According to the complaint, the AJL became debt-free after swapping its debt for equity and assigning the shares to a newly created company called Young Indian – Sonia and Rahul each hold 38 percent. 

Last week, the ED alleged that this move allowed the Gandhis to gain control of assets worth around $233 million for just a little more than $58,000. 

But the Congress Party has rejected the accusations, saying the National Herald’s rescue was about preserving a legacy of the independence movement, not profiteering. 

Protests broke out across the country Thursday over the case, a “mass movement to protect democracy and uphold the Constitution,” according to the opposition. 

The opposition decried the charges as “politics of vendetta and intimidation” by Modi, claiming that the prime minister and his ruling BJP are weaponizing federal agencies to silence political rivals. 

According to Reuters, at least 150 opposition politicians have faced ED enforcement action since Modi took office in 2014.