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Cong stir as ED quizzes Rahul in Herald probe
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in connection with its money laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper even as Congress leaders from across the country congregated in Delhi and sought to march from the party headquarters to the agency’s office despite no police permission.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in connection with its money laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper even as Congress leaders from across the country congregated in Delhi and sought to march from the party headquarters to the agency’s office despite no police permission.
Scores of Congress leaders were detained (and then released) even as the agency questioned Gandhi for close to 10 hours across two sessions. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the Congress of seeking to put pressure on investigating agencies. Rahul Gandhi has been summoned again on Tuesday.
People familiar with the matter said Gandhi, 51, was asked questions about the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) by Young Indian Private Ltd (YI), in which he is a 38% shareholder; operations of National Herald; a loan of ₹90.21 crore given by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to AJL; and transactions related to development of a property in Mumbai.
Gandhi is the first member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to be questioned in the case. A team of lawyers accompanied the Wayanad member of parliament but was not allowed to be present during the questioning, which began around 11.30 am. The Congress leader was allowed to leave the ED office around 2 pm for lunch, after which he rejoined the investigations around 3.30 pm. Questioning ended around 11pm.
To protest against the ED questioning, Congress workers took out protests in various parts of the country. Hundreds were detained in the Capital for violating prohibitory orders.Prominent among those detained in Delhi were Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Randeep Surjewala, KC Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, and Jairam Ramesh, among others.
“Instead of appealing to the country for maintaining peace and shunning any kind of violence, the PM and home minister Amit Shah are using ED, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and other agencies against the opposition,” said Gehlot.
Surjewala alleged that some Congress leaders sustained injuries as Delhi police beat them. “P Chidambaram was also roughed up and his rib was broken and his spectacles were found broken on the road outside AICC office,” Surjewala alleged in a video message.
ED’s probe under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is based on an Income Tax department investigation, completed in 2017, which was based on a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in 2012.
Swamy accused the Gandhis of using party funds to purchase AJL, which published National Herald newspaper. He claimed that ₹90.21 crore were transferred from AICC to AJL at zero interest; and that YI received 92 million shares of AJL and that Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra purchased additional shares to gain full control of the company.
Officials familiar with the probe said Rahul Gandhi was also asked why AICC gave a ₹90 crore loan to AJL when it was not in position to return it.
Sonia Gandhi has also been summoned by the ED in the case and is expected to appear before the agency on June 23. She is currently in hospital after having contracted Covid-19. Earlier, senior Congress leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal were also questioned by the agency.
AJL was founded in November 1937 by Jawaharlal Nehru and published the National Herald, Qaumi Awaz in Urdu and Navjeevan in Hindi. Income Tax proceedings, initiated in 2017, which are the basis of ED’s probe, revealed that YI purchased the ₹90.21 crore interest free loan given by AICC to AJL, by making a payment of only ₹50 lakh to the former.
Investigators said YI was founded in November 2010, just 23 days prior to assignment of the ₹90 crore loan, with a nominal capital of ₹5 Lakh. “ Young Indian did not even have any funds of its own for purchase of the loan of ₹90 crore of the AICC,” an IT department document seen by HT stated.
The Congress has repeatedly said that the transaction was done to help save the newspaper and pay the salaries of journalists and staffers at a time when AJL faced huge debts. It argues that the decision helped revive the organisation and blames the central government of raking up an old issue to target the Gandhi family and for political vendetta.
“The Opposition cannot be targeted in a democracy like this. All leaders from Kerala to Kashmir are being targeted...Democracy is being throttled and we oppose it strongly,” said Baghel.
In a press briefing, Union minister, Smriti Irani accused the Congress of putting pressure on investigating agencies to keep the financial wrongdoings of the Gandhi family under wraps. She said the Congress protest was not to save democracy, but Rahul Gandhi’s properties.
The minister said questions should be asked of the Gandhi family about their links to the company, Dotex Merchandise Private Limited, which allegedly has connections with a hawala operator in Kolkata. The Financial Intelligence Unit has red-flagged this company’s financial transactions, she said.
“Is it true that this company has relations with companies that are owned by Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra?” she said.
Referring to the ED’s case Irani said Associated Journals Limited (AJL), founded in 1930 with the purpose of publishing a newspaper, and with around 5,000 freedom fighters as shareholders is “now under the Gandhi family’s control” and that with the transfer of ownership, the company is not publishing newspapers but has become a real estate business. Responding to the Congress’ claim that ED is on a with hunt she said: ““If you have nothing to hide what is the problem.”
