Rahul Gandhi summoned by ED in National Herald case for 5th time
Darpan News Desk IANS, 20 Jun, 2022 10:51 AM
New Delhi, June 20 (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been summoned on Tuesday - for the fifth time - by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning the investigation in connection with its probe in the National Herald case.
Till now, he has been questioned for about 40 hours by the anti-money laundering agency, including on Monday.
Gandhi was reportedly questioned about a few transactions made by Kolkata-based Dotex Merchandise Pvt Ltd.
Earlier, the Congress leader had denied having knowledge of any sort of loan taken by Young Indian, according to ED sources. In fact, he is reported to have told the ED that he was not aware of the accommodation entry of YI.
Gandhi also said that the late Congress Treasurer Motilal Vora was engaged in all these sorts of affairs. Vora held 12 per cent stake in YI, while Rahul Gandhi and his mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi had 76 per cent stake.
"Gandhi said he had no knowledge of YI-AJL deal as Vora was looking after it," a sources said.
Sonia Gandhi, who was in hospital for Covid related health issues, has also been summoned on June 23 in the same case.
The Congress is witnessing internal bickering on the issue of security breach of the Prime Minister and Congress MP from Punjab Manish Tewari has termed the incidence as most unfortunate and said the matter should be probed by a sitting High Court Judge.
Addressing a gathering in Tanda in Hoshiarpur district after laying the foundation stone of development work, the Chief Minister said there was no threat to the life of the Prime Minister but he cancelled his programme on Wednesday because of the thin presence of people at the BJP's rally.
High drama was witnessed on Thursday after 125 of 179 international passengers, who arrived at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport Rajasansi, near here, from Italy, in an Air India flight tested positive on arrival. The Covid passengers were asked to quarantine in local hospital as per the guidelines of the government.
On Wednesday, The Prime Minister's rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled due to a security lapse after some protesters blocked a route and forced his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. The Prime Minister was enroute the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident happened.
Although the department has all infrastructural needs in place to deal with the large number of cases expected in case of the third wave becoming a reality, he also appealed to the people to get themselves fully vaccinated against the virus as it is the most potent tool to avoid Covid-19.
Regretting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to cancel his scheduled visit to Ferozepur midway, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said on Wednesday that there was no security lapse that led to the cancellation of the Prime Ministers visit to the bordering town.