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View of the Congress-owned Herald House after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sealed the premises of Young Indian (YI), in New Delhi. (PTI) Two days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sealed the office of Young Indian (YI) at Herald House on Delhi’s Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, the agency on Thursday restarted its search operations at the premises. Sources said the searches were started after YI office bearer and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge reached the Herald House in the afternoon.
The firm owned by the Gandhis is under probe by ED for acquiring Associate Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of the National Herald newspaper, and all its assets for a “pittance” against an alleged loan extended by the Congress.
The agency had earlier launched search operations at Herald House, where YI has its offices on the fourth floor, on Tuesday. However, the searches could not take place because of the absence of any YI office bearer at the spot. Under rules, searches at any premises cannot be carried out until the owner of the property, his representative or the person in charge is present.
Due to Kharge’s unavailability on Tuesday, the agency had sealed the office and sent summons to Kharge to be present on Thursday for searches to be completed.
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“The principal officer Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress leader) came on Tuesday but left the premises without getting the searches conducted. Summons had been sent to the principal officer (Kharge) to get the search concluded. In his absence, the offices were sealed to ensure no one tampers with potential evidence. Today he has arrived, so searches are being resumed,” an ED officer told The Indian Express.
The Delhi Police had on Wednesday increased deployment of personnel outside the Congress headquarters at 24, Akbar Road. The Congress, however, claimed that police had surrounded the residence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi at 10, Janpath, and that of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi at 12, Tughlaq Lane – both in central Delhi.
The Congress had hit out at the government on Wednesday and linked the sealing of YI’s office and the increased deployment of police outside the AICC headquarters to protests planned by the party on Friday on price rise, unemployment and hike in GST rates on essential commodities.
“The Congress is under siege. Delhi Police have surrounded our headquarters and homes of Congress president and ex-president. This is the worst form of vendetta politics. We will not submit. We will not be silenced. We will continue to raise our voice against injustices and failures of Modi Sarkar,” AICC general secretary in charge of communication, Jairam Ramesh, had said.
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First published on: 04-08-2022 at 02:57:50 pm