Enforcement Directorate quizzes Rahul Gandhi in National Herald case

Top Cong leaders march in solidarity; BJP says oppn party backing corruption

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday in a money-laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper after the MP reached the agency's headquarters here accompanied by a battery of party leaders and supporters.

Asserting that the show of strength by the Congress was aimed at putting pressure on the ED, the BJP attacked the opposition party, saying its leaders had hit the streets in support of corruption and to protect the alleged assets worth Rs 2,000 crore of the Gandhi family.

Gandhi, who entered the headquarters of the federal agency in central Delhi around 11.10 am, was put to questioning about 20 minutes later after he finished some brief legal proceedings and marked his attendance.

He was allowed by the ED to leave for lunch around 2:10 pm and he returned for the questioning around 3:30 pm, officials said.

It is understood that Gandhi wrote down his statement under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during the first round of questioning.

The former Congress president first left for the ED office from the Congress headquarters on Akbar Road in the morning and was accompanied by party leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram.

Priyanka Gandhi sat with Rahul Gandhi in a vehicle as the convoy of seven SUVs, escorted by armed CRPF personnel, entered the ED office on APJ Abdul Kalam Road.

Rahul Gandhi, 51, is a Z+ category protectee of the CRPF after the Union government withdrew the Gandhi family's SPG cover in 2019.

The investigating officer of the case, an assistant director-rank officer of the ED, is understood to have put possible questions about the incorporation of Young Indian company, the operations of the National Herald, the loan given by the Congress party to AJL and the fund transfers within the news media establishment.

The probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian that owns the National Herald newspaper. The Nati­onal Herald is published by the Associated Journals (AJL) and owned by Young Indian.

“The Congress will fight this oppression by the government,” Indian Youth Congress President Srinivas BV said.

Noting that nobody is above the law not “even Rahul Gandhi”, Union Minister Smriti Irani claimed that never before such a blatant attempt was made by a political family to hold a probe agency to ransom and added that it has been done to protect the "ill-gotten" assets of the family.

The Congress said in a press conference in the morning that the 1937-established AJL faced huge debts and the party, during 2002-11, gave Rs 90 crore to the newspaper to pay the salaries of the journalists and staffers who worked there.

The agency has questioned senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal in April as part of the investigation.

The questioning of the senior Congress leaders and the Gandhis is part of the ED's investigation to understand the share holding pattern, financial transactions and role of the promoters of Young Indian and AJL, officials had said.

The ED recently registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the PMLA after a trial court here took cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe against Young Indian Pvt Ltd on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and shareholders of Young Indian.

Swamy had accused Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds, with Young Indian paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that Associate Journals owed to the Congress.