In connection with the suspected money laundering case involving the National Herald, the Enforcement Directorate summoned interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul on Wednesday. Sonia has been called by the central investigative agency to appear in New Delhi on June 8 to join the investigation, which was closed by the agency in 2015.
Since taking cognizance of a Central Bureau of Investigation case in 2016, the ED has been investigating Associate Journals Ltd (AJL), the holding company of the National Herald newspaper, and the role of various Congress leaders under the anti-money laundering law.
The accused in the case, including former Haryana chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and late Congress leader Motilal Vora, allegedly “used the proceeds of crime” in the form of a land plot allotted illegally to AJL in Panchkula and pledged it to obtain a loan from a Syndicate Bank branch in Delhi (Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg) for constructing a building in Mumbai’s Bandra area. This property, valued at ₹16.38 crore, was attached by the ED in 2020.
The Gandhis were served with a notice by the Delhi high court in February of last year, requesting a response to Swamy’s request to lead evidence in the case before the trial court. They argued in the Delhi High Court, however, that Swamy’s petition was “misconceived and premature.”
