New Delhi: The Enforcement
Directorate (ED) on Monday examined senior Congress leader and Leader of
Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge here in connection with a
money laundering probe against the Associated Journals Limited (AJL), publisher
of the National Herald newspaper.
Kharge, 79, was summoned to
appear before the ED here for deposition in the AJL/National Herald case. He
arrived at the ED headquarters early in the day and deposed in the money
laundering case, officials said, adding, his statement was recorded under the
Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Kharge is an office-bearer of
Young Indian and AJL and his questioning was necessary in the ongoing money
laundering probe, they said.
The ED has been probing AJL
and the role of various Congress leaders under PMLA since 2016 after
registering a case under the anti-money laundering law on the basis of a CBI
FIR.
The agency had alleged that
the accused in this case, that includes former Haryana Chief Minister and
Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and late Congress leader Motilal Vora,
"used the proceeds of crime" in the form of a land plot allotted
"illegally" to AJL in Panchkula and pledged it to avail loan from a
Syndicate Bank branch (Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg) in Delhi for constructing a
building in Mumbai's Bandra area.
This property, valued at Rs
16.38 crore, was attached by the ED in 2020.
On Sunday, Kharge said all
Opposition parties should unite against the BJP to relieve people of its
“oppression”.
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, in a
private criminal complaint filed before a trial court here, had accused
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, her MP son Rahul Gandhi and others of conspiring
to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying only Rs 50 lakh, through which
Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that
Associate Journals Ltd owed to the Congress.
The Delhi High Court in
February last year had issued a notice to the Gandhis for their response on the
plea of Swamy.
However, Gandhis contended in the Delhi High Court that the plea by Swamy was "misconceived and premature".(Agencies)
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