Congress leader and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Congress president Sonia Gandhi will appear before the ED on the said date if required but the party will write to the probe agency seeking some accommodation for Rahul
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and MP Rahul Gandhi. ANI
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday issued summon to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and the party MP Rahul Gandhi over the National Herald case.
At a press conference in the national capital on Tuesday, Congress leader and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Sonia Gandhi will appear before the ED on 8 June, but the party will write to the probe agency seeking some accommodation for Rahul Gandhi. The notice was served to both the party leaders by the ED few days ago.
News agency PTI quoted officials saying that the ED wants to record the statements of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Singhvi further said there is no evidence of money laundering or of any money exchange. “The party will face every ‘puppet agencies’ like ED, CBI, IT. We are not scared or get intimidated by such ‘cheap tactics,” he added.
The Congress leader said that the ruling BJP is using “puppet” agencies to intimidate political opponents.
“National Herald has a history that goes back to independence days. In 2015, the ED closed the National Herald case. But the government didn’t like it and it removed the ED officials concerned, brought in new officials and reopened the case,” Singhvi said.
The Congress leader further claimed that “this is to divert attention from inflation and other raging problems.”
He further said that all opposition leaders including Mamata Banerjee, Farooq Abdullah are under the attacks from central agencies.
The National Herald case pertains to the alleged assets misappropriation of over Rs 2,000 crore in an equity transaction.
In April this year, the investigating body quizzed former Union minister Pawan Bansal and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge in connection with the money laundering probe into the National Herald case.
The National Herald newspaper is published by Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and owned by Young Indian Pvt Limited.
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