Like Rahul, Sonia Gandhi held Motilal Vora responsible in ED’s interrogation in National Herald case

Enforcement Directorate (ED) interrogated Congress President Sonia Gandhi for a long time in the National Herald case. He has been called again for questioning today. Meanwhile, Sonia has expressed her inability to explain the transaction that facilitated the acquisition of assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), publisher of National Herald and other party publications by Young Indian. Let us tell you that both he and his son Rahul Godhi have a stake in this.

Sonia Gandhi was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday for six hours in connection with the acquisition of AJL and its assets worth Rs 800 crore by Young Indian in an alleged money laundering case. ED sources said that during interrogation, Sonia Gandhi said that the late former treasurer of the party, Motilal Vora alone knew about the details of transactions between Congress, AJL and Young Indian.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi and other Congress functionaries including Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal had taken a similar stand when questioned by anti-money laundering agency officials. Times of India has given this information by quoting sources in one of its reports.

The Congress declined to comment on the entire episode on Tuesday. However, earlier Congress secretary Pranav Jha had told TOI after Rahul Gandhi named Motilal Vora before the probe agency, “The ED proceedings are judicial in nature and leaking them is a crime. So we will not comment on it.”

In this case, the ED is trying to find out how Young Indian (YI) acquired AJL and its properties. The ED essentially wants to know about its prime immovable properties which were provided at subsidized rates by the Congress governments in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Bhopal and Chandigarh.

According to the agency, Young Indian had paid only Rs 50 lakh out of Rs 1 crore to Congress, which was from Dotex Merchandise Pvt Ltd. The ED suspects that it is a shell company based in Kolkata. The Congress has claimed that it had paid Rs 90.2 crore to AJL to help it meet its obligations for payment of provident fund dues and VRS dues of its employees. At the same time, the ED says that the party functionaries have failed to provide any proof of the alleged payment. He has also not been able to tell whether the payment was made in cash or through cheque. The agency says Young Indian claims it took over AJL’s Congress debt and in return the party transferred 100% of AJL’s stake.

The ED says it found it “unbelievable” that Young Indian managed to take over the assets of AJL by taking over a Congress loan of Rs 90 crore with a share capital of Rs 5 lakh. According to the ED dossier, “Since YI did not have any funds at the time of alleged purchase of loan of Rs 90.2 crore, he claimed to have taken loan of Rs 1 crore from Dotted Merchandise.”

Let us tell you that Sonia Gandhi has been asked more than 75 questions during the eight-hour session in two days. The ED has recorded his statement. Sources said it took five days for investigators to record answers to nearly 100 questions of Rahul.

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are currently out on bail. A Delhi court had taken cognizance of the charges against him and ordered his trial for offenses under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC based on the findings of the Income Tax Assessment Report.