Sonia Gandhi, Congress interim president, to appear before ED in National Herald

The fresh summon was issued as Congress`s interim president!

On Thursday, Congress Interim president Sonia Gandhi will appear before the enforcement directorate (ED) in the National Herald cases. Delhi Police has set up barricades in the vicinity of AICC headquarters at Akbar road. 

According to the information, Senior Congress leaders and the party's MPs are all set to assemble at the AICC office to express solidarity with Sonia Gandhi. Congress has also decided to protest across the country against the BJP-led government in support of Sonia Gandhi.

Official sources told ANI that Sonia Gandhi has been asked to depose before the investigators at the party headquarters here around 11 am on Thursday. The fresh summon was issued as Congress's interim president could not join the ED investigation in the case due to COVID-19. Earlier, the agency had issued similar summons to Sonia Gandhi as she failed to appear before the investigators on June 8 and then on June 21 due to COVID-19.

The Congress leader had developed a mild fever on June 1 evening and was found COVID-19 positive upon testing the next morning. On June 1, the ED had summoned Sonia Gandhi to appear before its investigators on June 8 in the case for the first time in connection with a money laundering case involving the National Herald. The agency wants to record Sonia Gandhi`s statements under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Last month, the ED questioned Rahul Gandhi on several occasions in the case to investigate alleged financial irregularities under the PMLA. The case was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

The National Herald is published by AJL and owned by YIL. While Kharge is the CEO of YIL, Bansal is the Managing Director of AJL. The ED is currently investigating the shareholding pattern and financial transactions as well as the role of party functionaries in the functioning of AJL and YIL.