The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday conducted raids at nearly 10 locations linked to National Herald, including its head office in New Delhi. The newspaper is owned by Young India Limited, a company by Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.
Officials said that the searches are being carried out under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to “gather additional evidences with regard to the trail of funds”.
Officers of the federal agency also searched the ‘Herald House’ office located at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, ITO in central Delhi. The address is registered in the name of Associated Journals Ltd which publishes the newspaper.
The ED has recently undertaken the high-profile questioning of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her MP son Rahul Gandhi in this case apart from few other Congress politicians.
The mother-son duo have been accused of misusing party funds to acquire valuable real estate through a convoluted financial deal. The Gandhis have denied the allegations.
The National Herald was a newspaper founded by Jawaharlal Nehru along with other freedom fighters in 1938. It was meant to voice the concerns of the liberal brigade in the Indian National Congress. Published by Associated Journals Limited (AJL), this newspaper became a mouthpiece of the Congress party after Independence.
AJL also published two other newspapers, one each in Hindi and Urdu. The newspaper ceased operations in 2008 with a debt of over Rs 90 crore. In 2016, it was relaunched as a digital publication and is now widely seen as a Congress mouthpiece.
Sonia Gandhi was questioned for three days last week in connection with the case. Official said that after the third day of questioning on July 27, Sonia has been quizzed for more than 11 hours over three days during which she had to answer around 100 questions. While her first round of questioning took place on July 21, the second round was on last Tuesday.
The Congress chief is understood to have stuck to the party’s position that no personal acquisition of assets was made in the Associated Journals Limited (AJL)-Young Indian deal and that the routine affairs were handled by other office bearers, including late Motilal Vora.
The officials said the agency is likely to soon file a charge sheet in the case in which the statements of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders Pawan Bansal and Mallikarjun Kharge will be annexed. Bansal and Kharge have been questioned by the ED in the past.
In June, Rahul Gandhi was questioned for around 50 hours over five days by the ED in the same case. Sonia was initially called for questioning at the same time, but her summons had to be deferred after she tested positive for Covid-19.
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