National Herald case: ED seals office of Young Indian, deploys cops outside Sonia Gandhi house

Police have been deployed outside the residence of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who was questioned recently by the probe agency.

Offices of the Young Indian were temporarily sealed as there was no one from their side in whose presence searches could be conducted, said reports.

The ED has summoned senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge to get the search concluded. As and when the authorised person will present himself for concluding the search, the seal will be lifted, said reports.

Besides temporarily posting police personnel outside the 10 Janpath Road residence of Sonia Gandhi, the police also temporarily barricaded the roads leading to the Congress headquarters.

Meanwhile, the Congress is holding a meeting of its senior leaders including Salman Khurshid, Mallikarjun Kharge, Pawan Bansal and P Chidambaram.

Stating that the party is under "siege", senior party leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted, "Delhi police has surrounded our HQs, and homes of INC President & 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!"

Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, "National Herald was started by Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.. etc. to involve the people of India in the freedom struggle. Today the investigative agency ED is being misused to tarnish it and the image of Congress. Not only against us, ED is being used against every opposition party in the country to destabilise the governments."

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday raided the offices of the National Herald in Delhi's Herald House and eleven other locations.

The raids came days after questioning Sonia Gandhi in an alleged money laundering case linked to the newspaper.

The ED has also questioned former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for about 50 hours in the case.

The Young Indian Limited took over Associated Journals Limited, which runs the National Herald. It took over 800 crores in assets of AJL and according to the Income Tax department, this should be considered an asset of Young India shareholders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, for which they are taxable.

The Congress, however, has claimed that the Young Indian is a non-profit organisation, and so the shareholders cannot make any money from its assets.

The ED has argued that Young Indian has not done any charitable work and cannot claim the benefit. Its only transaction was the transfer of AJL's debt.