NEW DELHI: Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, called the Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering case against Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi “unprecedented.” Singhvi began his rebuttal after additional solicitor general S V Raju for ED on July 3 concluded his arguments on the point of cognisance of the chargesheet filed in the case.

“This is truly a strange case. More than strange. Unprecedented. This is an alleged case of money laundering, without any property, without use or projection of property. There was not an inch of property moved from Associated Journals Limited (AJL) to Young Indian. No Congress leader gets any property or money. Yet this is called money laundering,” Singhvi argued.

The ED has alleged that top Congress leaders conspired to fraudulently acquire assets worth over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of the National Herald, through a not-for-profit entity, Young Indian.

The probe agency’s chargesheet claims Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, alongside the late Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, and others including Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey, orchestrated the takeover using a Rs 90 crore loan from the Congress to AJL.

On July 3, ASG Raju had argued that the Gandhis were the “beneficial owners” of Young Indian, holding 76% of its shares, and that they gained complete control of the company after the demise of other shareholders. Singhvi told the court that the restructuring was carried out purely to make AJL debt-free.

The proceedings would continue on July 5 with rebuttal on behalf of Rahul Gandhi.