At the same time, the road to the AICC headquarters in the state capital was blocked on Wednesday, with Congress claiming the party was “under siege,” while police said barricades were erected and their staff delegated to avoid any unfavorable situation.
Congress described the ED operation and police operation as a government “pressure tactic” and claimed it was an attempt to thwart their nationwide protest against the center on August 5.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter to condemn the deployment of heavy security forces near party headquarters.
Delhi Police blocking the road to AICC HQ has become the norm rather than the exception! Why did they just… https://t.co/WsCdouA9WO
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) 1659527434000
On Tuesday, the agency conducted searches at 12 locations under the criminal sections of the Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the case to “gather additional evidence related to the money trail.”
The raids were also carried out at the Herald House office in Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, ITO in central Delhi, which was sealed today.
The address is registered in the name of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) which publishes the newspaper.
The ED has extensively questioned Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her MP son Rahul Gandhi on the case, along with a few other Congress politicians.
While Sonia Gandhi was questioned in three rounds for over 11 hours last month, Rahul was questioned for over 50 hours over five days in June.
The questioning had prompted a series of protests by members of Congress across the country, with senior leaders taking to the streets to condemn ED’s action against the Gandhis.
Center Press Tactics: Cong
Congress reacted vigorously to the ED’s action, claiming that today’s events were pressure tactics by the government to quell their nationwide protest on August 5th.
“There was no reason, no provocation for the government to deploy security forces and take such action, other than that Congress was planning a nationwide protest on August 5,” Congress Chairman Ajay Maken said during a news conference.
He said Congress also received a letter from the Delhi police saying they could not hold protests on August 5.
“The government can oppress us as much as they want, but we will protest inflation, unemployment, GST on edibles and continue with our schedule even if we are jailed,” he said.
Blaming the attack on the central government, Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said “fear” was not a word in the grand ole party’s dictionary, describing the ED raids in the case as actions by a “fearful and frightened government”. .
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot called the heavy police operation near Congress headquarters an “undeclared emergency”.
“Turning Congressional Headquarters and 10 Janpath into a police precinct is an undeclared emergency. The office of the National Herald (Young Indian) was forcibly sealed said on Twitter.
Why is
The case relates to allegations of financial irregularities during the 2010 takeover of AJL by Gandhi-owned Young Indian Limited.
The Congress party said it made a Rs 90 crore loan to a struggling AJL between 2001/02 and 2010/11 and later in 2011 the shares of AJL were allocated to Young Indian and that debt was turned into equity converted and the loan was deleted from the books of the AJL.
The ED alleges that these transactions attract anti-money laundering charges as a complex web of transactions and the routing of funds were undertaken by the party and its leaders to acquire the multi-million rupee assets of AJL.
The Gandhis are understood to have told the ED during their separate questioning sessions that no personal fortune was made in the Congressional-AJL-National Herald deal as Young Indian was a “non-profit” corporation incorporated under Section 25 of the Companies Act Founded .
They also informed the ED that AJL retains ownership of all of its assets and Young Indian does not “own or control” those properties.
Sonia and Rahul are among the founders and controlling shareholders of Young Indian. Like her son, the Congress President also holds 38 percent of the shares.
The ED lawsuit in this case came after the agency registered a new case under the PMLA late last year, after a trial court here opened an IIA investigation into Young Indian based on a private criminal complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy im Year 2013 had noted.
Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and embezzle funds, with Young Indian paying just Rs 50 lakh for the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore owed to Congress by Associated Journals Limited.
The Congress party had described the ED action against its leaders as a “political vendetta” and stated that the case was not money laundering.
In February last year, the Delhi High Court issued a memorandum to the Gandhis seeking their response to Swamy’s request.
About Rs 800 billion worth of assets are “owned” by the AJL, according to ED, and the agency wants to know from the Gandhis how a “non-profit company like Young Indian has been conducting commercial activities to rent out its land and assets”.
The Congress party has said that the Income Tax Office has valued AJL’s properties at around Rs 350 crore.
(With inputs from PTI)
watch Enforcement Directorate seals office of National Herald
Apr 9, 2022