National Herald case: Sonia Gandhi questioned by ED; Congress calls it 'political vendetta', says BJP is 'afraid' of her

New Delhi: Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi has arrived at the Enforcement Directorate office, on Thursday, where has been summoned for investigation in connection with the National Herald money laundering case.

Sonia Gandhi, 75, was accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and son Rahul Gandhi. She arrived at the office Enforcement Directorate's (ED) headquarters at Vidyut Lane flanking APJ Abdul Kalam Road in central Delhi a little after noon escorted by her Z+ category CRPF security cover.

The Congress interim president was recently diagnosed with COVID-19 and was seen wearing a mask. During the questioning, Priyanka Gandhi will be allowed to stay in the 'Pravartan Bhawan' headquarters of the agency, away from the questioning room, so that in case of a health issue she can be with Sonia Gandhi and provide her medicines.

News agency PTI said that the questioning team will also have a woman officer and all of them have obtained 'COVID negative' certificates in order to participate in the session, sources said.

Why has ED summoned Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi?

Last month, Congress Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi was also questioned by the ED in the National Herald money laundering case. The move to probe the Gandhis was initiated after the federal probe agency last year registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the PMLA after a trial court in Delhi took cognisance of an Income Tax department investigation against Young Indian (YI) on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

Sonia and Rahul are among the promoters and majority shareholders of Young Indian. Both of them hold 38 per cent shareholding.

Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds, with YI paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to the Congress.

The Delhi High Court, in February 2021, issued a notice to the Gandhis for their response on Swamy's plea, seeking to lead evidence in the matter before the trial court.

The ED has also grilled Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal in April this year in the same case.

Congress, however, has maintained that there has been no wrongdoing and that Young Indian is a "not-for-profit" company established under section 25 of the Companies Act and hence there can be no question of money laundering.

It is also being said that during his deposition before the ED last month, Rahul Gandhi stuck to the position that there was no personal acquisition of assets by himself or his family as Young Indian was a "not-for-profit" company and that despite he being a majority shareholder various financial decisions taken to revive the National Herald newspaper was taken collectively by senior Congress party leaders.

The agency wants to understand how the loan was extended to AJL by the Congress and if the provisions of the Companies Act and the anti-money laundering law were contravened in AJL-Congress-Young Indian deal.

The party also have been saying that AJL, which was established in 1937, faced huge debts and the Congress, from 2002 to 2011, gave Rs 90 crore to the National Herald newspaper, out of which Rs 66 crore was used to pay salaries/VRS of journalists and staffers who worked there.

Sonia Gandhi's old video of goes viral

As ED interrogates the Congress interim president, an old video featuring her asserting that she is not afraid of anything as she is the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi is going viral.

The video of Sonia Gandhi from December 2015 went viral after Tamil Nadu Congress Committee shared it on its Twitter handle.

நான் இந்திராவின் மருமகள், யாருக்கும் அஞ்ச மாட்டேன்.