National Herald case: Sonia Gandhi had earlier been called on June 23 but could not appear before the agency owing to ill health.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi is set to appear before Enforcement Directorate today in connection with a money laundering probe into the National Herald case. Sonia had earlier been called on June 23 but could not appear before the agency owing to ill health.
Last month, the central probe agency had questioned her son Rahul Gandhi in the case for five consecutive days amid protests by party leaders and workers who accused the central government of misusing the agency for its political vendetta.
What is the ED case?
The ED case, in which the Gandhis are questioned, is based on a trial court order that allowed the Income Tax Department to probe the affairs of National Herald newspaper and conduct a tax assessment of Sonia and Rahul. The order came on a complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.
Swamy, in his petition, alleged that the Gandhis had resorted to cheating and misappropriation of funds in order to acquire the newspaper. He accused the Gandhis of acquiring properties owned by National Herald by buying the newspaper’s erstwhile publishers, The Associated Journals Limited (AJL), through an organisation called Young Indian (YI) in which they have 86 per cent stake.
Swamy has also accused Sonia, Rahul and others of misappropriating funds by paying Rs 50 lakh through YI to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to the Congress.
The Congress has been claiming it gave a loan of Rs 90 crore to AJL, the publisher of National Herald newspaper, over a period and to offset it, the AJL converted its debt into equity and sold it to Young Indian, owned by the Gandhis. However, no Congress leader questioned by the ED has been able to provide evidence for the same.
The loan by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to the AJL is also being questioned as a political party is not allowed to give loans under the Representation of the People Act.
A brief history
After the AJL shut operations in 2008 after being hit by losses, its debt increased to Rs 90.21 crore by the end of 2010.
Then the Congress thought of reviving the newspaper which, it says, had played a role in the freedom movement. The Congress went ahead and granted a Rs 90-crore interest-free loan to the AJL. The money was, the party said, to help initiate a process to bring the newspaper back to health. However, the newspaper could not be revived and the AJL failed to repay the loan to the Congress.
In June 2014, Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha summoned all accused in the case, including the Gandhis. She said that evidence before her suggested that YIL was in fact created as a “sham or a cloak” to convert public money to personal use to acquire multi-crore assets of AJL. The magistrate said that the complainant had established a prima facie case against the accused under Section 403 (Dishonest Misappropriation of Property), Section 406 (Criminal Breach of Trust) and Section 420 (Cheating) read with Section 120B (Criminal Conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Currently, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are out on bail granted by Patiala House Court in 2015.
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 "Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi - File Photo")
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