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Sonia, Rahul Gandhi to be questioned by ED – What is the case all about?
The central probe agency has summoned Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul to join the investigation on June 8 in New Delhi, a case which was closed by the agency in 2015
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday issued summons to interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul in connection with the alleged National Herald money laundering case. The central probe agency has summoned Sonia to join the investigation on June 8 in New Delhi, a case which was closed by the agency in 2015.
The ED has been probing Associate Journals Ltd (AJL), the holding company of the National Herald newspaper, and the role of various Congress leaders under the anti-money laundering law since 2016 after taking cognisance of a Central Bureau of Investigation case.
The agency alleged that the accused in the case, which includes former Haryana chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and late Congress leader Motilal Vora, “used the proceeds of crime” in the form of a land plot allotted illegally to AJL in Panchkula and pledged it to avail loan from a Syndicate Bank branch (Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg) in Delhi for constructing a building in Mumbai’s Bandra area.
This property, valued at ₹16.38 crore, was attached by the ED in 2020.
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament Subramanian Swamy, in a private criminal complaint filed before a trial court, also accused Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying only ₹50 lakh, through which Young Indian Pvt Ltd obtained the right to recover ₹90.25 crore that Associate Journals Ltd owed to the Congress.
The Delhi high court in February last year issued a notice to the Gandhis asking for their response to the plea filed by Swamy seeking to lead evidence in the matter before the trial court.
They, however, contended in the Delhi HC that Swamy’s plea was “misconceived and premature”.
Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who was last examined in the case, said all Opposition parties should unite against the BJP to relieve people of its “oppression”.
There was no official statement from the Congress on Kharge’s examination till Monday evening. However, an aide of Kharge said, “The ED had been asking Oscar Fernandes to submit certain documents of Young Indian for an enquiry. After his demise, Young Indian requested Kharge to take over as the director of Young Indian only on December 3 last year. He is going to submit the documents [to the ED] on behalf of the organisation.”
