ED resumes National Herald raids; Mallikarjun Kharge assists
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New Delhi: After senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge himself presented before the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the central agency resumed its raids at the Young Indian (YI) office on Thursday. YI runs the Congress-owned newspaper National Herald, PTI reports.
Kharge reached the YI office on Thursday afternoon after ED sought his presence during the raids since he is the principal officer of the company.
ED informed that it had emailed Pawan Bansal, along with Kharge and requested them to assist them in the search operations, IANS reported.
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.
Officials said that searches in the company were resumed, and any available evidence will be collected.
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.