ED chargesheet act of sheer political vendetta: Chandigarh MP Tewari
Addressing a press conference at the Punjab Congress Bhawan in Chandigarh, Tewari said the case will come crashing down in courts, as there was nothing unlawful or illegal
Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari on Tuesday alleged that the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald case against Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was an act of sheer political vendetta, aimed at maligning the party leadership by the ruling party.
Addressing a press conference at the Punjab Congress Bhawan, along with senior party leaders, including Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Capt Sandeep Sandhu, Tewari said the case will come crashing down in courts, as there was nothing unlawful or illegal.
Giving details of the case, he said the Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which was founded by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and other senior leaders and freedom fighters to bring out newspapers like the National Herald, the Navjeevan and Qaumi Awaz, had run into massive losses, and accrued liabilities and outstandings of about ₹90 crore.
He said as was the standard corporate practice to clean the balance sheets, a new company Young Indian Limited (YIL) was incorporated.
He said the INC paid off AJL’s ₹90-crore debt over 10 years and acquired its shares. The shares were subsequently transferred to YIL in a standard corporate practice of debt swap.
He pointed out it was a standard legal practice to convert the debt into equity and that was done in the case of AJL also.
Tewari quoted the example of the Vodafone company, whose debt the Government of India converted into equity.
Besides, he referred to the ₹16-lakh-crore debt waiver to myriad corporates by various banks to clean up their balance sheets by taking very deep haircuts.
Challenging the contention of complainant Subramanian Swamy that it was an attempt to grab the AJL properties, he said, of the six properties the AJL owned across the country, only one was freehold while five others were on lease. He said nobody can sell those properties.
“Besides, the YIL, which had acquired the shares of the AJL, was 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,” he explained.
