The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday summoned the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and her parliamentarian son Rahul Gandhi to reportedly seek their statements in the National Herald newspaper money laundering case.
While Sonia Gandhi will appear on June 8, Rahul to appear before the investigators on Thursday. The agency officials said that their statements would be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Congress party confirmed that their leaders have received the ED summons. Speaking at a press conference, the opposition party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters that the senior Gandhi will comply with the summons and appear before the investigators.
Political vendetta
“Rahul Gandhi will go if he is here or he may seek a fresh date,” Singhvi narrated while charging the government of unleashing political vendetta on their leaders. “This is a strange case of money laundering where no money is involved. The case is more hollow than a pack of cards. We will face it. We are not intimidated. This reeks of vendetta, pettiness, fear and cheap politics,” Singhvi charged. He claimed the ED had closed this case in 2015 but it was reopened after removing the officials who were originally probing it.
The ED case pertains to financial irregularities which is suspected to have been committed in the Congress-promoted Young India Private Limited that owns National Herald newspaper. The broadsheet newspaper was published by Associated Journals Limited (AJL).
The Gandhis are promoters of Young India and the investigating agency had registered a fresh case against the Gandhis, Suman Dubey and technocrat Sam Pitroda under the PMLA following a trial court taking cognizance of an Income-Tax department probe against Young India based on the a private criminal complaint filed in 2013 by the BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
Swamy had alleged that Sonia, Rahul and others had conspired to cheat and misappropriate funds available with Young Indian Pvt Ltd. They were accused of paying only ₹50 lakh, but obtained the right to recover ₹90.25 crore that Associate Journals Ltd owed to the Congress.
Last February, Gandhis had told the Delhi High Court that Swamy’s allegations were “misconceived and premature” .
The ED had questioned veteran Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal last month. Subsequent to Kharge’s grilling, the Congress’ whip in the Lok Sabha, Manickam Tagore, charged the government of “harassing” him.