The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named Chief Minister Revanth Reddy in the chargesheet filed in the National Herald case. It has been stated that CM Revanth Reddy made donations to the controversial Young Indian organization between 2019-22. To this extent, the ED filed an affidavit in a local court in Delhi on April 9.
These details were recently revealed and articles were published in the national media. According to media reports, the ED has stated that there were irregularities in the donations received by the Young Indian and Associated Journals Limited (AJL). The ED has stated in the chargesheet that some people were collected by promising positions and tickets, while others were made to receive donations by threatening their political future and businesses.
However, the court is yet to consider the chargesheet. In this case registered by the ED under the PMLA, the ED has named former Congress party president and Rajya Sabha member Sonia Gandhi as the first accused (A-1) and Rahul Gandhi as the second accused (A-2). The ED has also named five other people as accused.
The ED has alleged that Young Indian Private Limited, in which Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have majority shares, conspired to illegally acquire assets worth Rs 2,000 crore from National Herald. It said that several Congress leaders collected donations for this purpose. Among those who asked for donations for Young Indian are the names of CM and former PCC president A Revanth Reddy, late leader Ahmed Patel and Pawan Bansal.
The ED has found that the Young Indian organization received donations of Rs 6.90 crore and Rs 5.05 crore respectively in the financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20. The ED has stated that this money was used by the organization to pay the pending income tax bill for the financial year 2011-12. However, the investigating agency has not named any of them as accused in the chargesheet.
On the other hand, the Deccan Herald stated that there has been no response from either Revanth Reddy or Bansal so far on the inclusion of their names in the chargesheet. The ED stated that its investigation has revealed that senior Congress leaders pressured them to donate to the Young Indian organization.