It was an eventful day not just for Congress president Sonia Gandhi but the investigating officer of the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald case as well. The officer underwent a Covid test along with three other officers of his team before they came to question Sonia on Thursday. The ED has recorded Sonia’s response to around 28 questions on Thursday and the questioning will continue on Monday .
The team of investigating officers handling the case were apparently asked to get medical certificates to certify they tested negative for Covid-19 before they could interrogate the Congress president. This was part of the request made by the Gandhis when they confirmed on email that Sonia will be present at the directorate headquarters on July 21 for questioning, sources familiar with the probe said.
In contrast to the political fight that spilled on to the streets there after , Sonia was poised, polite, patient and quick to respond to more than two dozen questions posed by the ED sleuths. Sources said around 28 questions have been answered by Gandhi so far and the remaining will be put before her on June 25. She has denied the charges, backed the claims made by Rahul Gandhi earlier and shown patience to sit before her interrogators.
The replies are being typed and the questioning is audio video recorded, similar to the procedure adopted during the questioning of Rahul Gandhi. The only difference, sources familiar to the probe said, was that Sonia was responding quickly and did not spend time reviewing her replies.
Sonia, who recently recovered from Covid, was accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi who sat in a different room close to one of the many interrogation rooms of the ED, where Sonia was being questioned. Occasionally, she visited Sonia to inquire about her health during the two and a half hour long questioning.
The ED deputed a government doctor and kept an ambulance ready in case she required urgent medical care but the questioning went on peacefully. Sonia is on medication and is learnt to have told ED sleuths that her daughter may give her the medicine after the two and a half hour questioning session, but the IO and his team decided to stop her interrogation at that time.
Sonia was asked to reappear after three days but she chose to depose before the agency once again on July 25. The ED is learnt to have questioned Sonia on the shareholding patterns and transfer of shares of Associated Journals Ltd, the holding company that publishes the newspaper National Herald, to another company called Young India Ltd resulting in alleged illegal benefit of Rs 414.40 crore in the form of several immovable properties which the ED claims was accrued by the Gandhi family.
Sleuths claimed Sonia and Rahul had taken over commercial properties worth around Rs 800 crore belonging to AJL allegedly using fraudulent means by incorporating Young Indian Ltd in 2010, with a share capital of Rs5 lakh. The ED sleuths said AJL has properties in posh areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, Lucknow and Panchkula in Haryana, most of which were allotted to it by Central and state governments over the decades for specific, non-profit purposes.
But Sonia is learnt to have denied all charges and dismissed the case at its inception. A similar stance had been taken by Rahul who said Young Indian Ltd was created under Section 25 of the Companies Act which, he said, is a not-for-profit company and no dividend could be given to its shareholders or directors. Sonia has backed the claims made by Rahul. The Gandhis are citing the Act, which says a Section 25 company is a charitable company prohibiting payment of any dividend to its members.
Meanwhile, the Congress hit the streets accusing the BJP led government of vendetta politics.
The ED officials however said the predicate offence, which allows the ED to carry out a money laundering investigation, was the Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court order which took cognisance of the offences under Sections 403, 406, 420 and 120B of Indian Penal Code (IPC) relating to the takeover of properties of AJL by Young India.
In 2014, the court had issued summons to Sonia, Rahul and others who are currently on bail. The appeal of Gandhi family against the magistrate’s judgement before Delhi High Court was dismissed and the Supreme Court too dismissed Gandhis’ appeal.
While the Congress leaders claim that “no money laundering” has taken place, the ED officials said the offence under Section 420 and 120B, taken congnizance of by the court, falls into the category of “scheduled offence under the PMLA”.
“Since Young India has taken over the properties worth more than Rs. 800 crore as sequel to these offences, accordingly, the amount of Rs 800 crore (value of the properties) is being treated as ‘proceeds of crime’ under the PMLA,” a sleuth said .
The Congress had several opposition parties on its side on Thursday who rallied behind Sonia, issuing a joint statement in her support. The show of strength was displayed by the signatories which included MDMK, TRS, CPI (M), CPI, Shiv Sena, NCP, RJD, IUML, JK(NC), RSP and the DMK. The statement said : “The Modi government has unleashed a relentless vendetta against political opponents through the mischievous misuse of investigative agencies. Prominent leaders of a number of political parties have been deliberately targeted and subjected to harassment in an unprecedented manner. We condemn this and resolve to and continue and intensify our collective fight against the anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-Constitution policies of the Modi sarkar that is destroying the social fabric of our society.”
