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Yet to test negative for coronavirus, Sonia seeks time from ED

Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s office has written to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking a fresh date to appear before the agency in the National Herald case as Gandhi is yet to test negative for COVID-19, a party source said on Tuesday.

Gandhi was scheduled to appear before the ED on Wednesday (June 8) while her son and former party chief, Rahul Gandhi, is to appear before the agency on June 13 in connection with a money laundering case involving the National Herald, the party’s mouthpiece.

The Congress chief, however, tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus on June 2.

Both Gandhi and her son have been summoned by the ED as it wants to record their statements under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The case to investigate alleged financial irregularities under the PMLA 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 BJP MP, Subramanian Swamy, in 2013.

Swamy had approached the court alleging that the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian, in which Gandhi and her son owned 38% shares each.

Young Indian paid ₹50 lakh to the Congress for transferring the ₹90 crore debt to it, the complaint said.

The Congress argued that Young Indian was a not-for-profit company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 that can neither accumulate profits nor pay dividends to its shareholders. Calling it a case of political vendetta, senior Supreme Court advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had said, “This is truly a very weird case — an alleged money laundering case on which summons are issued with no money involved.”