By PTI
NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here for her questioning in the National Herald money laundering case.
Gandhi, 75, arrived at the federal probe agency’s headquarters located at Vidyut Lane flanking A P J Abdul Kalam Road in central Delhi a little after noon escorted by her Z+ category CRPF security cover.
Gandhi, who was diagnosed with Covid recently, was seen wearing a mask and was accompanied by her children Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.
Priyanka Gandhi will be allowed to stay in the ‘Pravartan Bhawan’ headquarters of the agency, away from the questioning room, so that in case of a health issue she can be with her mother and provide her medicines.
Ahead of her appearance, the Delhi Police deployed a huge force and barricaded the entire over 1 km stretch between Gandhi’s residence on Akbar Road-Janpath and the ED office even as traffic restrictions have been enforced around the area.
The party has slammed the agency’s action against its top leadership and called it a “political vendetta”.
The Congress chief is deposing on the third summons as she sought exemption on earlier dates of June 8 and June 23 owing to coronavirus infection.
Her statement will be recorded by the agency under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and it will be also be taped in an audio-video mode.
The agency, according to sources, will give her an option to either write down or dictate her answers to an ED staffer over computer, who will be present along with the investigating officer of the case.
The probe relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.
Her son and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has been questioned by the agency in the case for over 50 hours in sessions spread across five days last month.
The questioning will be conducted keeping in mind Covid protocols and the session will be conducted by the same assistant director-level investigation officer who questioned Rahul Gandhi.
The questioning team will also have a woman officer and all of them have obtained ‘covid negative’ certificates in order to participate in the session, sources said.
The move to question the Gandhis was initiated after the ED late last year registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the PMLA after a trial court here took cognisance of an Income tax department probe against Young Indian on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and majority shareholders of Young Indian.
Like her son, the Congress president too has 38 per cent shareholding.
Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds, with YI paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to Congress.
In February last year, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Gandhis for their response on Swamy’s plea, seeking to lead evidence in the matter before the trial court.
Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal were questioned by the ED in this case in April.
The Congress party has maintained that there has been no wrongdoing and that Young Indian is a “not-for-profit” company established under section 25 of the Companies Act and hence there can be no question of money laundering.
It is understood that Rahul Gandhi, during his deposition before the ED, stuck to the position that there was no personal acquisition of assets by himself or his family as Young Indian was a “not-for-profit” company and that despite he being a majority shareholder various financial decisions taken to revive the National Herald newspaper was taken collectively by senior Congress party leaders.
The ED, sources said, wanted to understand how the loan was extended to AJL by the Congress party and if the provisions of the Companies Act and the anti-money laundering law were contravened in this AJL-Congress-Young Indian deal.
The ED says that assets worth about Rs 800 crore are “owned” by the AJL and it wants to know from the Gandhis how a not-for-profit company like Young Indian was undertaking commercial activities of renting out its land and building assets.
A loan of Rs one crore taken by YI from a Kolkata-based company in February 2011 is also under the scanner of the ED.
The party had said AJL, which was established in 1937, faced huge debts and the Congress, from 2002 to 2011, gave Rs 90 crore to the National Herald newspaper, out of which Rs 66 crore was used to pay salaries/VRS of journalists and staffers who worked there.
The party also slammed the Modi government for “misusing” probe agencies against opposition leaders and staged protests.
Senior Congress leader and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot condemned the ED action of calling Sonia for questioning and said the probe agency should first hold a press conference to spell out under what charges she is being probed.
“I condemn the ED action of calling Sonia Gandhi for questioning,” he told reporters at a press conference.
“The ED should have gone to her residence to take her responses to their questions,” he said, citing past precedents, adding that this is being done to harass her.
Referring to the questioning of Rahul Gandhi earlier, Gehlot said never has anyone questioned a leader for five days in a row and long hours of questioning.
“Their aim is to demoralise and create problems,” he alleged.
Gehlot said this action comes after the Udaipur declaration of the Congress party, which received a very encouraging response from the public.
Earlier, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed the media was also being prevented from entering the Congress headquarters.
“From the early hours of this morning the Delhi Police, obviously taking orders from the Union Home Minister, is preventing the media from entering the Congress party headquarters. This high-handedness was only to be expected and reflects the mindset of the Modi Sarkar,” Ramesh said on Twitter.
He also said that the ED action comes to prevent Congress from raising issues of the public like price rise and unemployment, which they will continue.
The Congress has organised protests in the national capital and across the country.
Gehlot alleged that there are two laws in India with one for the BJP and one for the opposition.
He also alleged that the area around the Congress headquarters here has been turned into a police cantonment and no one is being allowed entry.
“They consider the opposition as their enemies and the target is to make the country opposition-free. Earlier their slogan was to make it ‘Congress-mukt’,” he said, alleging that the country is headed towards such times that all Indians should be worried.
Gehlot also claimed that the ED is being used by the ruling BJP as a “big weapon to bring down governments of opposition”.
“There can’t be anything more cheap and shameful than this,” he said.
He said the ED has made 1,700 raids and their conviction rate is 0.5 per cent as due processes and not followed.
The Rajasthan chief minister said he wanted to meet the heads of the IT, CBI, ED and CBDT chairman as the credibility of these probe agencies in the eyes of the public is going down.
NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here for her questioning in the National Herald money laundering case.
Gandhi, 75, arrived at the federal probe agency’s headquarters located at Vidyut Lane flanking A P J Abdul Kalam Road in central Delhi a little after noon escorted by her Z+ category CRPF security cover.
Gandhi, who was diagnosed with Covid recently, was seen wearing a mask and was accompanied by her children Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.
Priyanka Gandhi will be allowed to stay in the ‘Pravartan Bhawan’ headquarters of the agency, away from the questioning room, so that in case of a health issue she can be with her mother and provide her medicines.
Ahead of her appearance, the Delhi Police deployed a huge force and barricaded the entire over 1 km stretch between Gandhi’s residence on Akbar Road-Janpath and the ED office even as traffic restrictions have been enforced around the area.
The party has slammed the agency’s action against its top leadership and called it a “political vendetta”.
The Congress chief is deposing on the third summons as she sought exemption on earlier dates of June 8 and June 23 owing to coronavirus infection.
Her statement will be recorded by the agency under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and it will be also be taped in an audio-video mode.
The agency, according to sources, will give her an option to either write down or dictate her answers to an ED staffer over computer, who will be present along with the investigating officer of the case.
The probe relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.
Her son and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has been questioned by the agency in the case for over 50 hours in sessions spread across five days last month.
The questioning will be conducted keeping in mind Covid protocols and the session will be conducted by the same assistant director-level investigation officer who questioned Rahul Gandhi.
The questioning team will also have a woman officer and all of them have obtained ‘covid negative’ certificates in order to participate in the session, sources said.
The move to question the Gandhis was initiated after the ED late last year registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the PMLA after a trial court here took cognisance of an Income tax department probe against Young Indian on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and majority shareholders of Young Indian.
Like her son, the Congress president too has 38 per cent shareholding.
Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds, with YI paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to Congress.
In February last year, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Gandhis for their response on Swamy’s plea, seeking to lead evidence in the matter before the trial court.
Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal were questioned by the ED in this case in April.
The Congress party has maintained that there has been no wrongdoing and that Young Indian is a “not-for-profit” company established under section 25 of the Companies Act and hence there can be no question of money laundering.
It is understood that Rahul Gandhi, during his deposition before the ED, stuck to the position that there was no personal acquisition of assets by himself or his family as Young Indian was a “not-for-profit” company and that despite he being a majority shareholder various financial decisions taken to revive the National Herald newspaper was taken collectively by senior Congress party leaders.
The ED, sources said, wanted to understand how the loan was extended to AJL by the Congress party and if the provisions of the Companies Act and the anti-money laundering law were contravened in this AJL-Congress-Young Indian deal.
The ED says that assets worth about Rs 800 crore are “owned” by the AJL and it wants to know from the Gandhis how a not-for-profit company like Young Indian was undertaking commercial activities of renting out its land and building assets.
A loan of Rs one crore taken by YI from a Kolkata-based company in February 2011 is also under the scanner of the ED.
The party had said AJL, which was established in 1937, faced huge debts and the Congress, from 2002 to 2011, gave Rs 90 crore to the National Herald newspaper, out of which Rs 66 crore was used to pay salaries/VRS of journalists and staffers who worked there.
The party also slammed the Modi government for “misusing” probe agencies against opposition leaders and staged protests.
Senior Congress leader and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot condemned the ED action of calling Sonia for questioning and said the probe agency should first hold a press conference to spell out under what charges she is being probed.
“I condemn the ED action of calling Sonia Gandhi for questioning,” he told reporters at a press conference.
“The ED should have gone to her residence to take her responses to their questions,” he said, citing past precedents, adding that this is being done to harass her.
Referring to the questioning of Rahul Gandhi earlier, Gehlot said never has anyone questioned a leader for five days in a row and long hours of questioning.
“Their aim is to demoralise and create problems,” he alleged.
Gehlot said this action comes after the Udaipur declaration of the Congress party, which received a very encouraging response from the public.
Earlier, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed the media was also being prevented from entering the Congress headquarters.
“From the early hours of this morning the Delhi Police, obviously taking orders from the Union Home Minister, is preventing the media from entering the Congress party headquarters. This high-handedness was only to be expected and reflects the mindset of the Modi Sarkar,” Ramesh said on Twitter.
He also said that the ED action comes to prevent Congress from raising issues of the public like price rise and unemployment, which they will continue.
The Congress has organised protests in the national capital and across the country.
Gehlot alleged that there are two laws in India with one for the BJP and one for the opposition.
He also alleged that the area around the Congress headquarters here has been turned into a police cantonment and no one is being allowed entry.
“They consider the opposition as their enemies and the target is to make the country opposition-free. Earlier their slogan was to make it ‘Congress-mukt’,” he said, alleging that the country is headed towards such times that all Indians should be worried.
Gehlot also claimed that the ED is being used by the ruling BJP as a “big weapon to bring down governments of opposition”.
“There can’t be anything more cheap and shameful than this,” he said.
He said the ED has made 1,700 raids and their conviction rate is 0.5 per cent as due processes and not followed.
The Rajasthan chief minister said he wanted to meet the heads of the IT, CBI, ED and CBDT chairman as the credibility of these probe agencies in the eyes of the public is going down.
