NEW DELHI | MUMBAI: Amid the controversy raging over ownership of Associated Journals Ltd, the company that owns National Herald , Navjeevan and Qaumi Awaz newspapers, estimates of the company’s prime properties ranging from Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore have been doing the rounds.To get a realistic valuation of the seven properties located in Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow , Patna, Indore, Bhopal and Panchkula, ET spoke to several property brokers and top real estate consultants in these cities. Experts pegged value of these properties at about Rs 1,150 crore, as per conservative estimates.Controversy erupted after BJP leader Subramanian Swamy alleged irregularities in the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd by Young Indian Ltd, a section 25 nonprofit private company. Delhi High Court in a recent order dismissed a plea by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi to quash summons issued against them by a trial court. They now have to appear before the court on December 19. Swamy has said that the Gandhis hold 76 per cent stake in Young Indian. This issue led to a logjam in Parliament over the past few days, with Congress members alleging "political vendetta".All seven of the company’s properties are located in prime locations. The biggest among these in terms of both value and size is the one on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg in Delhi, with 100,000 sq ft of built-up space spread over five floors. According to conservative estimates by real estate experts, this property may well be worth Rs 300-400 crore.Two floors in the building are leased to the ministry of external affairs, which has been running the Passport Seva Kendra since 2012. Two floors are occupied by TCS to process passport applications. The top floor has been kept empty for use by Young Indian. The building currently generates about Rs 7 crore as rent every year.While the Delhi edition of National Herald started from this building in 1968, the paper was established by Jawaharlal Nehru in Lucknow way back in 1938.The property in Lucknow, in the historic Kaiserbagh area of the city, used to publish three newspapers – National Herald in English, Navjeevan in Hindi and Qaumi Awaz in Urdu. The two-acre property has two buildings, Nehru Bhawan and Nehru Manzil, which are spread over 35,000 sq ft. One part today houses the Indira Gandhi Eye Hospital and Research Centre, run by the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust. The property originally had Church Mission Birkett High School on it before Associated Journals acquired it.A property broker, who wished to remain unnamed, said this is the heart of Lucknow, with Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s property next to it. K Vikram Rao, president of Indian Federation of Working Journalist, senior journalist and son of K Rama Rao, the first editor of National Herald, said plots were given by Congress governments for the purpose of running newspapers, at throwaway prices and now their market value is much higher. The three newspapers that Associated Journals ran shut down in 1999 after facing troubles for almost a decade.Some properties, however, were never used for the intended purpose. In Mumbai, the paper had been given a 3,478 sq metre plot in Bandra along the Western Express Highway. This is a large plot by Mumbai standards. This land was given in 1983 for publishing a daily newspaper and to set up the Nehru Library and Research Centre.Instead, an 11-storey commercial office building stands constructed on the plot. "As per rules, the work on the said plot for the designated purpose should have started within three years of allotment. However, the construction started in 2014 and that too for a commercial building, with 14 offices and 135 car parks in total," said Anil Galgali, a Mumbaibased Right to Information activist who has written to chief ministers of Maharashtra thrice since 2013 to take the plot back. "I had written twice to Prithviraj Chavan, then chief minister of Maharashtra to take the plot back. I have also recently urged current chief minister Devendra Fadnavis through a letter to do so as the plot was allotted for a different purpose," he said.The Bandra property is valued at about Rs 300 crore on the basis of its commercial development potential of over one lakh sq ft of office space.Similar is the case with the one acre property in Patna’s Adalatganj area which has been lying vacant since it was given to the paper. Over the past few years, the plot has been illegally occupied by slums that the company has been trying to clear up. Associated Journals’ newspapers used to operate out of a leased space on Exhibition Road while the allotted land remained empty, said media watchers in Patna.But even an acre of vacant land in this part of the city would be worth Rs 50-60 crore, said a property broker who operates in the area. With the attendant buildings, it will be worth about Rs 100 crore. An older property broker in the area recalled that some part of the property was converted into shops which were sold off a few years ago.The 3,360 sq metre plot in Panchkula that stands in the prime Sector 6, opposite the Haryana Police headquarters, is Associated Journals’ latest addition to its property portfolio. It was allotted to the company just after the Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s Congress government came to power in Haryana in 2005.Local property brokers said this plot currently houses a four-storey building, which recently got completed. With the new building, the property is currently worth Rs 100 crore or so, they said.The Indore property is unique since National Herald newspaper is still published out of here through a franchise. This 22,000 sq ft plot just off AB Road, the lifeline of the city, is worth about Rs 25 crore, said a local property broker, who did not wish to be named. Several newspaper offices – of Lokmat, Nai Dunia, Hitavada, Prabhat Kiran and others – surround this property.Then there is the company’s property in Bhopal’s MP Nagar area which was reportedly sold fraudulently by a Congress member to a builder, who has made a building on it that was further sold for commercial and retail use. In its current form, this building is worth Rs 150 crore, according to local property consultants.