Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses Ideas for India Conclave in United Kingdom.
Highlight
- ED issues fresh summons to Rahul Gandhi for June 13
- His mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi has been asked to appear on June 8.
- Congress calls ED’s action ‘vengeance’
National Herald CaseThe Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued fresh summons to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi to appear on June 13 for questioning in a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper. He was earlier asked to appear on June 2, but the Lok Sabha member from Kerala’s Wayanad seat demanded a new date as he was out of the country. Rahul Gandhi, 51, has now been asked to appear at the federal agency’s headquarters in central Delhi on June 13, officials said. His mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, 75, has been asked to appear before the agency on June 8.
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The case pertains to the ED probe into alleged financial irregularities in Young Indian promoted by the party, which owns the National Herald newspaper. Officials said the agency wants to record the statements of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). National Herald is published by Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and owned by Young Indian Private Limited. As part of the probe, the agency had recently questioned senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal. Officials had said that the questioning of senior Congress leaders and the Gandhi family was part of the ED’s probe to understand the shareholding pattern, financial transactions and role of promoters of Young Indian and AJL.
The agency 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 based on a private criminal complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.
The Congress party had called the ED’s action “vengeance”. Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters earlier this week, “The Modi government should know that they cannot succeed in their cowardly conspiracy by registering such fake and fabricated cases.”
Read also | ED summons Sonia Gandhi, Rahul in National Herald money laundering case