Gandhis oppose ED plea in National Herald case, call it ‘abuse of process of law’

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Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. File | Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have opposed, before the Delhi High Court, the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) challenge to a trial court order refusing to take cognisance of the agency’s complaint in the National Herald-linked money laundering case. The Gandhis termed the ED’s petition an “abuse of the process of law”.

In their response to the ED’s revision petition, the Gandhis said the challenge was “not maintainable”, and that the trial court’s December 16, 2025 order was “perfectly legal and sound in law, and does not suffer from any jurisdictional error, perversity, irregularity or illegality”.

The matter came up before Justice Sachin Datta on Tuesday (September 22, 2026), when the court was informed that the Gandhis had filed their replies on September 18. The matter has been listed for further hearing on October 12.

“The petitioner (ED) has miserably failed to demonstrate that the complaint filed by the ED was maintainable based on the statutory provisions applicable to the case. It is writ large that the words ‘private complaint’ or ‘a complaint by a public person/citizen’, do not find any place in the entire statutory framework,” their replies said.

The trial court, in its December 16, 2025 order, had held that taking cognisance of the ED’s complaint was “impermissible in law” since it was not founded on a First Information Report (FIR).

It had observed that an investigation and the consequent prosecution complaint in a money laundering case could not be maintained without an FIR relating to an offence listed in the PMLA schedule.

The ED’s investigation stemmed from a private complaint filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy, according to the trial court.

The ED has challenged this reasoning before the High Court, arguing that the trial court’s order effectively creates a category of money launderers who could escape proceedings merely because the alleged scheduled offence was brought before a magistrate through a private complaint.

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