New Delhi, June 3 (agency)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued fresh summons to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to appear before it on June 13 for questioning in a money laundering case related to newspaper National Herald. Officials gave this information on Friday. The ED had earlier asked Congress leader Gandhi to appear on June 2, but Gandhi had said he was out of the country, requesting some other way to appear. Officials said Rahul Gandhi, 51, has now been asked to appear at the ED’s headquarters in Delhi on June 13. Congress President Sonia Gandhi (75) has been summoned by the ED on June 8.
The case was registered recently in connection with the probe into alleged financial irregularities in the party-backed ‘Young Indian’. The newspaper ‘National Herald’ belongs to Young Indian Pvt Ltd. ED officials said the agency wants to record the statements of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). ‘National Herald’ is published by Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and is owned by Young Indian Private Limited. The ED had recently questioned Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal as part of the investigation. Officials had said that the ED wants to find out about the financial transactions, promoters of Young Indian and the role of AJL by questioning Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and senior Congress leaders. The agency had registered a fresh case under criminal provisions of the PMLA after a trial court here took cognizance of the Income Tax Department’s investigation against Young Indian Pvt Ltd. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy had lodged a complaint in this regard in 2013.
The Congress has termed the ED action as an act of ‘vendetta’. Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters earlier this week, “The Modi government should know that by registering such false and bogus cases, it will not be able to succeed in its cowardly conspiracy.”
