Congress plans massive countrywide protest against ED questioning Sonia Gandhi

The Congress party has planned a massive countrywide protest as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is set to question the party president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday in the National Herald newspaper-linked money-laundering case.

Gandhi (75) was issued a second summons by the federal probe agency for June 23, but the Congress leader could not keep the date as she was "strictly advised to rest at home following her hospitalisation on account of COVID-19 and a lung infection".

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh announced that the party will demonstrate its collective solidarity with its leader in a most telling manner.

Tomorrow as the political vendetta unleashed by the Modi-Shah duo against our top leadership continues, the entire Congress party across the country will demonstrate its collective solidarity with Smt. Sonia Gandhi in a most telling manner.

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 20, 2022

Her son and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has been questioned by the agency in connection with the case for over 50 hours in sessions spread across five days.

The probe relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.

The move to question the Gandhis was initiated after the ED late last year lodged a fresh case under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), following a trial court here taking cognisance of an income-tax department probe against Young Indian on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and majority shareholders of Young Indian. Like her son, the Congress president too has 38 per cent shareholding in the company.

Swamy had accused the Gandhis 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 Associated Journals Limited (AJL) owed to the Congress.

In February last year, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Gandhis for their response on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader's plea, seeking to lead evidence in the matter before the trial court.

Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal were questioned by the ED in connection with the case in April.