Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, has requested Enforcement Directorate (ED) to grant her more time to appear before it as she is still suffering from the infection, party sources said .

Gandhi, who tested positive on June 2, is still recovering and her latest report is not COVID-negative, they added, PTI reported.

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. The probe agency had also summoned her son and former party chief Rahul Gandhi on June 13 for questioning in the case.

Congress leaders had earlier claimed that Sonia Gandhi is willing to appear before the ED given she recovered from the virus.

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).

The members of the first family of the Congress party, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, are among the promoters and shareholders of Young Indian.

In 2013, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy had filed a private criminal complaint accusing Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds with Young Indian Pvt Ltd paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that Associate Journals Ltd owed to the Congress.

The Congress had 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.