New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday summoned Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in connection with a case of alleged money laundering linked to the now-defunct National Herald newspaper.
While Rahul Gandhi has been called to join the investigation on 2 June, Sonia Gandhi has been called on 8 June, sources in the ED said. “The two leaders have been summoned as part of the investigation in the National Herald case. A notice was served to both,” a senior ED official told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
The National Herald case pertains to the alleged misappropriation of assets of over Rs 2,000 crore in an equity transaction. There are allegations of cheating, conspiracy and criminal breach of trust in the acquisition of National Herald publisher Associated Journals Limited (AJL) by Young Indian Pvt Ltd, in which the Gandhis are said to have majority stake.
A trial court had in December 2015 granted Sonia and Rahul Gandhi bail in the case.
After summonses were issued to its leaders Wednesday, the Congress said the ED had closed its probe into the National Herald case in 2015, and accused the BJP of using “puppet agencies” to “intimidate political opponents”.
The Congress “will not get frightened” and “will not bow down”, party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters.
In April this year, the ED had questioned former Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge in connection with the money laundering probe involving National Herald. Kharge is Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha while Bansal is interim treasurer of the Congress.
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National Herald case
Founded by freedom fighters, including former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1938, National Herald became a mouthpiece of the Congress after Independence. The newspaper had to shut down operations in 2008 with a debt of over Rs 90 crore.
In 2013, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy filed a complaint before a trial court in Delhi, calling into question transactions allegedly made by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi involving National Herald.
While also accusing them of tax evasion, Swamy alleged that the Gandhis bought properties owned by National Herald by acquiring AJL through Young Indian Pvt Ltd.
“The Gandhis have been accused of misappropriating funds by paying Rs 50 lakh, through which Young Indian had obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to the Congress,” an ED officer explained.
According to the agency, Young Indian Pvt Ltd — started in 2010 with a capital of Rs 50 lakh — acquired the majority of the shares of AJL.
Allegations levelled against the Gandhis prompted the Income Tax Department to launch a probe into the matter, and the ED is now investigating the “money laundering aspect” in the case, the senior ED officer told ThePrint.
In 2016, the Supreme Court, while refusing to quash proceedings against the five accused in the National Herald case, granted them exemption from personal appearances before investigating agencies.
The central government in 2018 served an eviction notice to AJL, ending the perpetual lease granted to it for Herald House on Delhi’s Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. However, the Supreme Court in April 2019 ordered a stay on proceedings initiated against the erstwhile publisher of National Herald under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.
“In 2015, the ED closed the National Herald case. But the government didn’t like it and it removed the ED officials concerned, brought in new officials and reopened the case. This is to divert attention from inflation and other raging problems,” Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Wednesday.
Singhvi added that National Herald dates back to the days of the freedom struggle, and alleged that all opposition leaders, including West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, have been under attack from central agencies.
“The BJP has, in fact, disgraced and dishonoured the freedom fighters, the stalwarts of the nation and their contribution to the freedom struggle in which their party and their predecessors have no role,” Singhvi said. The lawyer-politician said that “all companies improve their balance sheets” by turning loans into equities, adding that the probe involving the Gandhis is a “weird case of money laundering” that does not involve any money exchanging hands.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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