National Herald case; ED seals Young Indian office premises, Congress workers in protest; police force deployed outside Sonia Gandhi's residence

NEW DELHI: Following the National Herald newspaper head office raid, the Enforcement Directorate has sealed the premises of the Young Indian office in the Congress-owned Herald House. ED officials said that this action is to preserve the evidence in the case which could not be collected earlier from the company.

Apart from Young India, all other office premises of National Herald are open, informed the ED officials. ED conducted inspections in connection with National Herald at various centres in the country on today. The investigations were conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to find out the source of the money in the National Herald case and gather evidence about the companies linked to it.

Additional police personnel were deployed outside the Congress headquarters at 24 Akbar Road, and the residence of interim party President Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath, on Wednesday evening. The police personnel were seen manning the road leading to the party headquarters.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi were interrogated by the ED for several hours in the National Herald case. Meanwhile, the Congress alleged that the raid was an attempt by the central government to divert attention from issues including inflation. It is estimated that the assets of National Herald are around Rs 2000 crores.

The ED action is in the case of alleged financial irregularities in the takeover of the Associated Journal, the publisher of the National Herald newspaper, by the Young Indian Company, which is headed by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

As the raid progressed at the National Herald building on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Delhi Congress workers protested outside the bulding, accusing the Centre of misusing investigative agencies. The Delhi Police had a tough time controlling them. AICC leader Jairam Ramesh MP responded that they should not think that Congress can be silenced by conducting raids.