Delhi Court Rules ED's National Herald Case Against Gandhi Family Invalid Without Proper FIR

"Other arguments possibly live to fight another day," the judge stated.

New Delhi:

A Delhi court has determined that taking cognisance of the ED's complaint in the National Herald case against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and five others was "impermissible in law" as it was not founded on an FIR.

Special Judge Vishal Gogne ruled that an investigation and subsequent prosecution complaint (equivalent to a chargesheet) for money laundering offenses is "not maintainable" without an FIR for the offense mentioned in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) schedule.

"Since the present prosecution complaint pertaining to the offence of money laundering is founded on cognisance and summoning order upon a complaint under section 200 CrPC (examination of a complaint) filed by a public person, namely Dr Subramanian Swamy, and not upon an FIR, cognisance of the present complaint is impermissible in law," the judge stated in his comprehensive 117-page order.

The court explained that since cognisance of the complaint must be denied based on a question of law, other arguments concerning the allegations' merits did not require adjudication.

"In view of the ongoing further investigation by the ED in consequence of the FIR registered by the EOW (Economic Offences Wing) Delhi on October 3, 2025, it is now premature and imprudent for the court to decide the submissions made by the ED as well as the proposed accused in relation to the merits of the allegations," it stated.

The court clarified that an investigation into money laundering offenses cannot proceed based on a complaint under Section 200 CrPC and subsequent cognisance when such complaint was filed by a public person.

"Cognisance of the offence defined under section 3 (offence of money laundering) and punishable under section 4 (punishment for money laundering offence), read with section 70 (offences by companies) of the PMLA, in the present complaint is declined. The complaint is dismissed," the judge concluded.

The court noted it would be premature to evaluate submissions from the ED and the accused regarding the allegations' merits, particularly when cognisance should be declined on a "pure question of law."

"Other arguments possibly live to fight another day," the judge remarked.

The court determined that an FIR regarding the scheduled offense provides qualitatively superior investigative potential compared to complaint case proceedings under Section 200 CrPC.

It explained that PMLA statutory provisions favor registering an FIR to investigate a scheduled offense as the jurisdictional trigger for the ED to commence its probe by registering an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) before filing a prosecution complaint.

Referencing a Supreme Court judgment, the court stated that the law designates an FIR in the predicate offense as the sine qua non for investigating money laundering allegations under PMLA.

"The objects of the PMLA and the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) reports unambiguously recognise the FIR in the predicate offence as the basis for an investigation relating to money laundering under the PMLA," it added.

The judge noted that requiring an FIR for the scheduled offense has consistently been the ED's stance before various authorities.

The court observed that despite receiving Swamy's complaint and the subsequent summoning order in 2014, the CBI had not registered an FIR regarding the alleged scheduled offense to date.

"However, the ED went ahead with recording an ECIR relating to money laundering on June 30, 2021 when no FIR (with the CBI or any other law enforcement agency) existed in relation to the scheduled offence," it pointed out.

Providing relief to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and five others, the court declined to take cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate's money laundering charges against them, ruling that the agency's investigation stemmed from a private complaint rather than an FIR.

The ED had accused Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, along with Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, and Young Indian (a private company) of conspiracy and money laundering.

The allegations claimed they acquired properties worth approximately Rs 2,000 crore belonging to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), publisher of the National Herald newspaper.