Sonia Gandhi Seeks More Time to Appear Before ED, says Not Yet Covid-Negative
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 8th June. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi has sought more time from the Enforcement Directorate to appear before it as she is still suffering from COVID-19, party sources said on Tuesday.
They said Sonia Gandhi, who tested COVID positive on Thursday, is yet to recover and her latest report is not Covid-negative.
The Enforcement Directorate had summoned Sonia Gandhi to appear before it on June 8 in connection with a money laundering case connected to the National Herald newspaper-AJL issue.
The probe agency had also summoned her son and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on June 13 for questioning in the case.
Rahul Gandhi was earlier asked by the ED to appear before it on June 2 but Rahul sought a new date as he was out of the country. The agency later asked Rahul Gandhi to appear on June 13 at its headquarters in Delhi.
Congress leaders had earlier claimed that Sonia is determined to appear before the Enforcement Directorate provided she recovered from the Coronavirus.
The case pertains to the investigation into the alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian that owns the National Herald newspaper. The paper is published by Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and owned by Young Indian Pvt Limited.
Officials said the ED wants to record the statements of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The questioning of the senior Congress leaders and the Gandhis is part of the Enforcement Directorate’s probe to understand the shareholding pattern, financial transactions and role of the promoters of Young Indian and AJL, officials had said.
The members of the first family of the Congress, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, are among the promoters and shareholders of Young Indian.
The agency had registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the PMLA after a trial court here took cognizance of an Income Tax Department investigation against Young Indian Pvt Ltd on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.
Swamy had accused Sonia, Rahul Gandhi and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds with Young Indian Pvt Ltd paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that Associate Journals Ltd owed to the Congress party.
The Enforcement Directorate summons triggered fuming reactions from the Congress, which charged that the “fake issue of AJL, (Associated Journals Limited) is an attempt by Bharatiya Janata Party’s propaganda machinery to deviate, divert and digress the attention of citizens from the multifarious vital issues of inflation, falling GDP and social unrest, social divisiveness in this country”.
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