New Delhi, Sept. 22 -- Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have termed as "abuse of the process of law" a plea filed in the Delhi High Court by the Enforcement Directorate challenging a trial court order refusing to take cognisance of its chargesheet against them in the National Herald-linked money laundering case.
In their response, the Gandhis have opposed the ED's revision petition saying it is "not maintainable" as the trial court's order is "perfectly
legal and sound in law and does not suffer from any jurisdictional error, perversity, irregularity or illegality".
On Tuesday, Justice Sachin Datta was informed by the Gandhis' counsel that they have filed the replies on September 18. The court listed the matter for further hearing on October 12.
"The petitioner (ED) has miserably failed to demonstrate that the complaint filed by the ED was maintainable on the basis of 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," the replies, filed through advocates Sushil Bajaj, Tarannum Cheema and Kanishka Singh, said.
On December 16, 2025, the trial court had held that cognisance of the agency's complaint in the case was "impermissible in law" as it was not founded on an FIR.
In its order, the trial court had said that an investigation and the consequent prosecution complaint (equivalent to a chargesheet) pertaining to the offence of money laundering were "not maintainable" in the absence of an FIR for the offence mentioned in the schedule to the PMLA.
It had said the agency's probe stemmed from a private complaint, and not an FIR, and despite receiving the complaint made by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and the consequent summoning order in 2014, the
CBI refrained from registering an FIR in relation to the alleged scheduled offence.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.