ED summons Sonia, Rahul in National Herald case

The enforcement directorate has issued fresh summons to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party leader Rahul Gandhi in a money laundering case linked to National Herald, Hindustan Times reported.

Sonia has been asked to join the investigation on June 8 while Rahul has been told to appear earlier. However, party leaders Randeep Surjewala and Abhishek Singhvi have said that the party will seek time for Rahul since he is abroad.

In 2012, former BJP MP Subrmanian Swamy had filed a complaint accusing the Gandhis of misappropriating funds as proprietors of Young India Private Limited, which had taken over the newspaper’s publisher Associated Journals Limited. According to the Hindustan Times, it was alleged that the Congress had loaned an amount of Rs 90.25 crore to AJL which it could not pay. Young India Private Limited then took over AJL.

The summons sparked a spat between the Congress and the BJP. Addressing a press conference, Singhvi called it a “fake” controversy and said it “is an attempt by the BJP’s propaganda machinery to deviate, diverge and digress the attention of citizens from the multifarious, vital issues of inflation, falling GDP and social unrest, social divisiveness in the country,” the Indian Express reported.

Singhvi has also alleged that the ED had closed the case but it was revived after new officials were brought into the agency.

BJP president J P Nadda took to Twitter. “Have you ever seen a criminal say I’m criminal? They’ll of course deny it. Documents are proof. If charge sheet is filed, you’d approach court to get it quashed, but they sought bail. It means they’re guilty.”