ED quizzes Sonia Gandhi for 2 hours in National Herald case, summons her again on Monday

NEW DELHI: Amid protests by party workers in the capital and other parts of the country, ED officials questioned Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for two hours on Thursday in connection with a money laundering case, better known as the National Herald case.
Sonia was questioned on 28 points related to takeover of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publishers of National Herald and other Congress organs, along with its properties by Young Indian, a company in which Sonia and her son Rahul hold majority stake. Sonia and Rahul have been on bail since 2015 when a Delhi court took cognisance of offences against them under Sections 420 and 120B of the IPC, the basis of ED’s case under the PMLA.
Sources said ED officials, while being told that Sonia may need to go home to take medicines, had initially scheduled the next round of questioning on Tuesday but agreed to bring it forward after Sonia indicated that Monday suited her better.

Sonia's response to questions before the Enforcement Directorate came faster than replies Rahul Gandhi had earlier given to questions put to him in the National Herald case.
On Wednesday evening, the ED, in response to a letter from the Congress president's office stating that she has just recovered from Covid and needs to be given medicines during the course of the day, had allowed her to be accompanied by daughter Priyanka, who was permitted to be near the interrogation chamber and meet her mother during the small breaks.

"We had asked her, in view of her recent recovery from Covid, to come on Tuesday at a time of her convenience given her medical condition. However, she offered to come on Monday and record her statements again," agency sources said. The ED questioning is likely to continue over the next week and beyond depending on the course of investigation.
The enforcement agency has been seeking details from Sonia and earlier from Rahul and other Congress functionaries about the transactions and verifiable documents in support of their claim that Congress paid Rs 90.21 crore to AJL or its employees. Congress functionaries have claimed that the money was used to pay VRS to AJL employees but have not been able to substantiate their claim or spell out whether the amount was paid in cash or through cheque, sources said.
While Rahul and other Congress leaders have denied having any knowledge of the transactions of Rs 90.21 crore given by Congress to AJL, claiming that the details were known to late party treasurer Moti Lal Vora, ED sources say that it was incumbent on Sonia, who was the party president at the time of the purported transactions, to give specific answers.
Sonia Gandhi's questioning marks the culmination of ED's money laundering probe against senior Congress leaders who were office-bearers of the party as well as AJL, the company which was transferred to a newly launched Young Indian in 2010 under suspicious circumstances.
The Gandhis, as majority shareholders of Young Indian, are accused of taking Rs 1 crore unsecured 'loan' from a Kolkata-based shell company Dotex Merchandise. Statements of two directors of the shell company to investigating agencies form the basis of questioning of Sonia Gandhi.
After an investigation into allegedly suspicious transactions between Young Indian, AJL and Congress over the last eight years since 2014 when it started probing the case, the Income Tax department had claimed before various authorities that Dotex Merchandise "was a company engaged in providing hawala transactions, by laundering of appellant's (Young Indian) own money". This loan of Rs 1 crore was also flagged as suspicious transaction in the Suspicious Transactions Report (STR) by the Financial Intelligence Unit.