Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, has requested the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to grant her three-week time to appear before it in the National Herald case as she is still suffering from the infection.According to sources, new summons will be issued to the Congress chief after three weeks.
The ED had summoned Gandhi to appear before it on June 8 in connection with a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper-AJL issue. However, she did not join the probe today.
Gandhi tested positive for coronavirus on June 2.
The probe agency has also summoned her son and former party chief Rahul Gandhi on June 13 for questioning in the case.
The case pertains to the probe into the alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian that owns the National Herald newspaper.
The ED wants to record the statements of Rahul and Sonia Gandhi under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Earlier today, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said its leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have nothing to hide from the ED and that they will appear before the probe agency.
Speaking to reporters, Khera said, “We are a law-abiding party. We follow rules. So, if they have been summoned, of course, they will go. We have nothing to hide. We are not like them. We remember when Amit Shah was running around in 2002 to 2013”.
“They will learn some lessons from us on what kind of people who adhere to the path of truth are. They should learn from us,” Khera added, PTI reported.
The Congress had earlier reacted strongly to the ED summons issued to Sonia and Rahul and termed it a diversionary tactic of the BJP-led central government.
“I want to make it clear at the outset that the fake issue of AJL (Associated Journals) is an attempt by BJP’s propaganda machinery to deviate, divert and digress the attention of citizens from the multifarious vital issues of inflation, falling GDP, social unrest and divisiveness in this country,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said.
