ED summons Sonia, Rahul

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday summoned Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her MP son Rahul Gandhi for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper. While Mrs Gandhi (75) has been asked to depose before the federal agency on June 8, Rahul Gandhi, who has been asked to appear on June 2, has written to the probe agency to postpone the date to after June 5 as he is abroad. Meanwhile, a political war of words has broken out between the Congress and the BJP over the issue.

The National Herald case pertains to the alleged misappropriation of assets of over `2,000 crore in an equity transaction.

The ED, officials said, wants to record the statements of the Gandhis under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The case to probe the alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper and is published by Associated Journals Limited (AJL), was registered recently.

The ED registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the PMLA after a trial court here took cognisance of an income-tax department probe against Young Indian Pvt Ltd on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by BJP MP Subramania Swamy in

2013.

In his complaint, Swamy accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds. The BJP MP complained that the Young Indian Pvt Ltd paid only

`50 lakh to obtain the right to recover `90.25 crore that the Associate Journals Ltd owed to the Congress party.