Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Congress president Sonia Gandhi to appear before the agency on July 21 in the National Herald case. Mrs. Gandhi had earlier written to the probe agency seeking postponement of her appearance citing recovery from Covid-19. Mrs. Gandhi had sought postponement from the agency notice for an appearance on June 23 on the grounds that the doctors had advised her to rest at home. The Enforcement Directorate had accepted the request for postponing questioning and had asked her to record her statement with the agency in the last week of July. Her son and former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was quizzed for 54 hours in five days.
The Income Tax department, which had been investigating the National Herald case since 2016, had filed a charge sheet alleging financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and majority shareholders of Young Indian with each having a 38 percent stake in the company.
The Gandhis are being probed as the ED registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the PMLA after a Delhi trial court took cognizance of an Income Tax department probe against Young Indian, based on a private criminal complaint filed by Subramanian Swamy in 2013.
WhatsApp us