ED questions Mallikarjuna Kharge on Young India documents
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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate, which resumed the raids at Young India (YI) in the presence of principal officer Mallikarjuna Kharge on Thursday afternoon, has interrogated the senior Congress leader in connection with the National Herald case, IANS reported.
The questioning was over a few documents of YI.
On Thursday, a team of ED officials reached the YI office for the search operation. They also opened the office of YI, which had been sealed. The central agency had earlier accused Mallikarjuna Kharge and Pawan Bansal of not cooperating despite sending two emails to them.
After senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the central agency resumed its raids at the Young Indian (YI) office, which owns the Congress-backed National Herald.
In YI, Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, the Congress national president, have major shares (38 per cent each) and are the promoters of the company.
Earlier, ED put a temporary seal at the single-room office of the Young Indian, located on the ground floor of the four-storeyed Herald House building, to "preserve evidence" as it could not search it during the last two days because it was locked and authorised representatives were not available.
The National Herald newspaper is published by Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL), and its holding company is Young Indian. The newspaper office is registered in the name of AJL. The ED had on Tuesday launched raids at a dozen locations, including at the Herald House, as part of its ongoing money laundering probe in the National Herald-AJL-Young Indian deal.
Agency officials had left the premises in the early hours of Wednesday after they collected some documents and digital data and questioned some staffers. The agency also had carried out the high-profile questioning of Congress President Sonia Gandhi (in July) and her MP son Rahul Gandhi (in June) in this case, at its headquarters in Delhi, apart from Kharge and Pawan Bansal in April.
