New Delhi: The All India Congress Committee (AICC) was not trying to sell the assets of the Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which the company had published the National Herald newspaper, but was trying to save the institution, which was part of the freedom movement, senior advocate RS Cheema said on Saturday, representing Rahul Gandhi. Cheema gave her presentations before the court of Special Judge Vishal Gogane, who are listening to the arguments of the charge sheet filed in the Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and other National Herald Money Laundering cases.“In the period after independence, this (AJL) was never a commercial institution. We (AICC) were trying to recover an organization that is part of the freedom movement inheritance. The problem was not recovering the loan (was given to AJL) but to revive it, to revive it, to see that it did not see the benefit from the sale.According to Ed, Sonia and Rahul, others and a private company, along with Young Indian Private Limited, conspired to cheat AJL properties worth more than Rs 2,000 crore in exchange for loans of Rs 90 crore. Cheema said Ed’s allegations were “raw lies”. The senior advocate said that Ed incorrectly concluded against Rahul, assuming that he was in charge of AICC cases as his general secretary in 2010. According to the constitution of the party, AICC has several general secretaries at one time, and none of them can be in charge in its cases, the chema said. The lawyer further stated that Sonia, then the Congress President, was incorrectly estimated as in -charge of AICC when the loan was assigned to AJL. On Monday, arguments will continue against Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, Sunil Bhandari, young Indian and Dotex Merchandise Private Limited and other accused.
