Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday for a fourth time in connection with the National Herald case.
His appearance was initially scheduled for June 17, but the senior Congress leader wrote to the ED to postpone his questioning citing illness of his mother Sonia Gandhi. Accordingly, the probe agency asked him to appear on Monday.
For three consecutive days last week, Rahul Gandhi had been questioned for about 30 hours amid widespread Congress protests in the national capital against their leader being questioned.
He was reportedly questioned about a few transactions made by Kolkata-based Dotex Merchandise Pvt Ltd.
Sonia Gandhi, who is presently hospitalised with Covid related health issues, has also been summoned on June 23 in the same case.
What is National Herald Case?
The National Herald was started in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru under Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and remained a Congress party outfit after Independence.
In the November of 2012, BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy filed a case against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi alleging that they misused Congress party funds to acquire AJL and acquire its Rs. 2,000 crore worth assets.
Gandhis maintained that in 2008, when the print edition was shut down, AJL owed Congress a debt amounting to Rs 90 crore and it was Congress which bailed it out.
In 2010, AJL became debt-free in 2010 by swapping its debt for equity and assigned the shares to the newly created non-profit company called Young India Private Limited (YIPL).
Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi own a 38% stake and are on YIPL board of directors. Congress says that since Young India is a non-profit company no dividends have been paid to its shareholders.
On Monday June 13, 2022, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate for 11 hours and asked him to return the next day again. The Congress party, meanwhile, staged protests in front of the ED office in Delhi and elsewhere in the country.
