New Delhi, 2 May 

A Delhi court on Friday issued notices to Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald money laundering case.

Special judge Vishal Gogne said their "right to be heard" was available at the time of cognisance of the chargesheet.

"Right to be heard at any stage breaths life into fair trial," the judge said, posting the matter on 8 May.

The ED, which filed its chargesheet recently, began its probe in 2021 after a magistrate court took cognisance of a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on 26 June, 2014.

The complaint, the ED said, highlighted a "criminal conspiracy" by several prominent political figures, including the first family of the Congress party led by Sonia, her MP son Rahul Gandhi, late Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes aside from Dubey, Pitroda and a private company Young Indian for their alleged involvement in money laundering in relation to the fraudulent takeover of properties valued over Rs 2,000 crore belonging to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL).

Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul are majority shareholders of Young Indian with 38 per cent shares held by each one of them. They were questioned for hours by the ED in this case a few years ago.