[1] As per the complaint filed in the court of the Metropolitan Magistrate, Associated Journals Limited (AJL) took an interest-free loan of ₹90.25 crore (US$10 million) from Indian National Congress.
[2] A closely held company, Young Indian, was incorporated in November 2010 with a paid up capital of 5 Lac and it acquired almost all the shareholding of AJL and all its properties (alleged to be worth ₹5,000 crore (US$580 million)).
Apart from Nehru, AJL's Memorandum of Association was signed by stalwarts such as Purushottam Das Tandon, Acharya Narendra Dev, Kailash Nath Katju, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai, Krishna Dutt Paliwal and Govind Ballabh Pant.
AJL also owns real estate property in various cities including New Delhi, Lucknow, Bhopal, Mumbai, Indore, Patna and Panchkula.
[9] On 21 January 2016 the AJL in its meeting in Lucknow decided to relaunch the three dailies, National Herald and its sister publications, Quami Awaz and Navjivan.
These shareholders include prominent individuals such as former law minister Shanti Bhushan and former chief justice of Allahabad and Madras High Courts Markandey Katju.
[11] Young Indian is a private company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 23 November 2010 with a capital of ₹5 lakh (US$5,800)[3] and with its registered office at 5A, Herald House, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Delhi.
[13] On 1 November 2012, Subramanian Swamy filed a private complaint in a court in Delhi alleging that both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have committed fraud and land grabbing worth ₹16 billion (US$180 million) by acquiring a publicly limited company called Associated Journals Limited (AJL) through their owned private company, Young Indian.
[14] He also claimed that, through this fraud, they had got the publication rights of the National Herald and Qaumi Awaz newspapers, with real estate properties in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
He alleged that the acquired properties were given by the government only for the purposes of publishing newspapers, but were used for running a passport office with rental income amounting to millions of rupees.
[17] Swamy argued that it is illegal for a political party to lend money for commercial purposes as per Section 29A to C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and Section 13A of Income-tax Act, 1961, and demanded investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the de-recognition of the Indian National Congress party for using public money.
She said that according to the evidence so far, "it appears that YIL was in fact created as a sham or a cloak to convert public money to personal use" to acquire control over ₹20 billion (US$230 million) worth of AJL assets.