The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued fresh summons to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to appear before it on July 21, pertaining to the alleged money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper.
Sonia had sought postponing of the summons by four weeks and hence, she has been asked to depose before the agency on July 21, ED officials told the media.
The 75-year-old Congress chief, who had to skip earlier summons after she tested positive for COVID on June 2, was released from hospital in the middle of June. She had requested for more time to appear before the agency. She was issued a second summons for June 23 by the agency but Sonia could not keep the date as she “has been strictly advised to rest at home following her hospitalisation on account of COVID and lung infection”.
Sonia’s son and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has been questioned by the agency in the same case for about 54 hours over five days.
Also read: National Herald case: ED postpones Sonia Gandhi questioning for 4 weeks
The probe relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited (YIL), which owns the National Herald newspaper. According to BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy who filed a private criminal complaint before a trial court in 2013, the YIL had “taken over” the assets of the National Herald in a malicious way.
Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds, with YIL paying only ₹50 lakh to obtain the right to recover ₹90.25 crore that Associated Journals Limited (AJL) owed to the Congress.
In February last year, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Gandhis for their response to Swamy’s plea, seeking to lead evidence in the matter before the trial court. The move to question the Gandhis was initiated after the ED recently registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, after the trial court in Delhi took cognisance of an Income Tax department probe against Young Indian.
Sonia and Rahul are among the promoters and majority shareholders of Young Indian. Like her son, the Congress president too has a 38 per cent shareholding.
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