A day after Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi shared his experience of being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier in the National Herald Case, the national media indicated on Monday that the ED is expected to summon him again for questioning in the same case.
According to reports, he will be questioned about irregularities in the operations of Congress’s National Herald newspaper. The likely questioning comes as the ED wants to conclude the investigation.
ED had earlier questioned Rahul in June 2022. It had also attached assets worth Rs 752 crore, a move that was upheld by the PMLA Adjudicating Authority. The authority said the moveable assets and equity shares attached by the ED are proceeds of crime and linked to the money laundering case.
The Associated Journals Ltd publishes the National Herald, which is owned by Young India Pvt Limited. Rahul and his mother Sonia Gandhi hold 38 per cent shares each of Young Indian. Besides Rahul, the ED had also questioned Sonia, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, his brother DK Suresh and party leader Pawan Bansal in connection with the case.
It may be recalled that only last week Rahul said that the central probe agencies are intending to question him soon. Addressing an election rally in Lucknow on Sunday, he said he was questioned for 55 hours by the CBI and the ED over alleged corruption and financial irregularities involving the National Herald newspaper.
“I told the ED officer that you are thinking that you had called me here, but you are misunderstanding. I have come here myself… I have come to see who is killing the democracy of India,” Gandhi said.
Incidentally, in the same rally he also indicated that he is likely to be arrested soon. The Congress leader further said that during the interrogation, he saw a lockup.
“I was thinking that my great-grandfather (Jawaharlal Nehru) had been sitting in a similar cell for 12 years, I should also go for at least 10 years,” he said. “I believe that if we present the truth, then the politics of India will completely change,” Rahul Gandhi added.
