From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Congress President Sonia Gandhi didn’t appear before the Enforcement Directorate which had summoned her on Wednesday for questioning in the alleged money laundering in the National Herald case.
Instead, she sent the Covid-19 tests on June 2 and 7, showing that she is still Covid positive. She, therefore, sought time after three weeks, provided she recovers from the virus.
“We are a law-abiding party. We follow rules. So, if Sonia and Rahul have been summoned, they will of course go. We have nothing to hide. We are not like them. We remember when (Home Minister) Amit Shah was running around from 2002 to 2013,” Congress spokesman Pawan Khera told a Press conference here.
He said Rahul Gandhi, who had sought time to appear before the ED, will depose before it on Monday as ordered by the agency. The Congress sources said the party will make it a big event on Monday when Rahul visits the ED office here.
The ED is trying to build a case of alleged financial irregularities by the Gandhis in the Congress-promoted Young India that owns the National Herald group of newspapers. The paper is published by its original owners Associated Journals Limited (AJL) set up by Jawaharlal Nehru, thogh it is now owned by the Young India Private Limited.
Its officials want to record statements of Sonia and Rahul under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Senior Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is also a reputed senior advocate of the Supreme Court, has said that no money or property was exchanged in the deal by Young India in financing the ailing National Herald to pay workers dues and other liabilities and so no question of any PMLA crime.
