Sonia Gandhi appears before ED for third round of questioning

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate ED for the third round of questioning in the money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaperShe reached the federal agencys office in central Delhi at 11 am accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi VadraThe 75year old Gandhi has been questioned for over eight hours till now where she has faced close to 6570 questionsThe questioning is expected to end Wednesday with the agency putting across a set of another 3040 questions to GandhiThe questioning pertains to the charge of alleged financial irregularities in the Congresspromoted Young Indian Private Limited which owns the National Herald newspaperThe sessions are taking place with Covidappropriate protocols in place and are being recorded in a audiovideo mode officials saidThe Congress has slammed the agencys action against its top leadership and termed it as political vendetta and harassmentThe Delhi Police like the last two times deployed a huge force including CRPF and RAF personnel and barricaded the entire over one kilometre stretch between Gandhis residence on JanpathAkbar Road and the ED office Traffic restrictions were also imposed in the areaRahul Gandhi has also been questioned by the ED in this case last month in sessions that clocked over 50 hours over five daysThe move to question the Gandhis was initiated after the ED late last year registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering ActThis was after a trial court here took cognisance of an Income Tax department probe against Young Indian based on a private criminal complaint by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and majority shareholders in Young Indian Like her son the Congress president too has 38 per cent shareholdingSwamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds with Young Indian paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 9025 crore that Associate Journals Limited owed to the CongressIn February last year the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Gandhis seeking their response on Swamys plea Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal were questioned by the ED in the case in AprilThe Congress has maintained there has been no wrongdoing and Young Indian is a notforprofit company established under section 25 of the Companies Act and hence there can be no question of money launderingIt is understood that Rahul Gandhi during his deposition before the ED stuck to the position that there was no personal acquisition of assets by himself or his familyAccording to the ED assets worth about Rs 800 crore are owned by the AJL and the agency wants to know from the Gandhis how a notforprofit company like Young Indian was undertaking commercial activities of renting out its land and building assets