BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has written to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, urging an Income Tax investigation into the role of senior Congress leaders in the >alleged take over of Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd, “publishers and printer of the National Herald newspaper,” and “illegal use” of Herald House, a multi-story property, for private rental purposes.

“The Congress party extended a loan of Rs. 90 crore or more in 2011 to the Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd with the express condition that this loan will be utilised to write off the accumulated debt of Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd and thereby make it possible to re-start the printing of the newspaper National Herald (which had been shut down in 2008),” Dr. Swamy said in his recent letter.

Meanwhile, Dr. Swamy alleged that ‘Young Indian’, a “private limited company, proposed to own the Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd debt of Rs. 90-plus crore in return for the transfer of 99.1 per cent of its shares to it.”

He alleged that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, the party's vice-president, >have 76 per cent shares in ‘Young Indian.’ With the alleged transfer, Dr. Swamy contended, they became “owners of the Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd having unfettered ownership of Rs. 2000 crore or more of immovable property.”

Invoking Section 13A of the Income Tax Act and Section 29 of the Representation of the People Act, which requires complete transparency in financial transactions of a political party, Dr. Swamy sought a search of the premises of the Herald House in Delhi's Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.

“A cursory inspection of the Herald House in Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg shows that the House which was built on leased land for printing of the newspaper, is now being put up for rent for private use,” he alleged.

Noting that he would be approaching the court, Dr. Swamy said: “In the exclusive issue of Income Tax Act, I am urging you to direct the investigation of fraud and cheating under the Income Tax Act and any other law you may think appropriate in this matter.”