New Delhi, 23 June
The Enforcement Directorate has asked Congress President Sonia Gandhi to record her statement with the agency in the last week of July, officials said on Thursday, while accepting a request for adjournment of investigation in the National Herald money laundering case, officials said on Thursday. Said to
The 75-year-old Congress president, who was to appear before the agency on Thursday, wrote a letter seeking more time on the ground that doctors had “strongly advised him to take rest at home after being hospitalized due to COVID and lung disease”. . infection”.
Officials said he would be asked to record his statement in the last week of July. Gandhi was first issued a notice to appear on June 8, but after he reported positive for COVID-19, a fresh notice was issued to appear on June 23.
The Congress President was on Monday discharged from a private hospital in Delhi where he was admitted for complications related to Kovid. A few days after he tested positive for Covid-19 on June 2, he was admitted to the hospital on June 12.
While she was in the hospital, her son Rahul Gandhi was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate for 54 hours in five days.
The Income Tax Department, which had been probing the National Herald case since 2016, had filed a chargesheet alleging financial irregularities in Congress-promoted Young Indian Pvt Ltd, which owns the National Herald newspaper.
The move to question the Gandhi family was initiated after the ED recently registered a fresh case under criminal provisions of the PMLA after a trial court here on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by Subramanian Swamy of Young Took cognizance of Income Tax Department’s investigation against Indian. in 2013.
Sonia Gandhi and her sons are among the promoters and majority shareholders of Young Indian, each holding 38 per cent stake in the company.
Swamy had accused Gandhi and others of conspiracy to commit fraud and misappropriation of funds, in which Young Indian had paid only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore, which is owned by Associated Journals Limited (AJL). ) had given to the Congress.
In February last year, the Delhi High Court issued notice to the Gandhi family for its response to Swamy’s plea, seeking to produce evidence in the case before the trial court.
The ED had questioned Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal in this case in April.
The Congress has accused the Center of “misusing” investigative agencies to target opposition leaders and termed the entire action as “political vendetta”.