Enforcement Directorate seals National Herald office in Delhi

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday temporarily sealed the premises of Young Indian (YI) in the Congress-owned 'Herald House' in connection with a money laundering case involving National Herald.

ED officials said the temporary seal has been put to "preserve the evidence" which could not be collected as authorised representatives were not present during the searches on Tuesday.

According to the notice pasted outside the Young Indian office in the Herald House, the headquarters of National Herald, it cannot be opened "without prior permission" from the agency. Officials said only the Young Indian office is sealed and other offices in the building could function.

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The ED said it had emailed the principal officer of the office to open the premises for it to carry out raids but the response was awaited. Sources said as and when the authorised person presents himself for concluding the search, the seal will be lifted.

The ED conducted searches at Herald House and 11 other locations on Tuesday.

As the office was sealed, police blocked the road leading to the Congress headquarters on Akbar Road, with the Congress alleging that this has become a norm rather than an exception. Police said it barricaded the road and deployed personnel to prevent any untoward incident.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh shared a video showing heavy police presence outside the party headquarters and said, "Delhi Police blocking the road to AICC Headquarters has become a norm rather than an exception! Why they have just done so is mysterious."

Police claimed they had received inputs about the possibility of some protesters gathering at the Congress office and the road was blocked as a preventive measure.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallijarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal were questioned in connection with the case in the past four months.

Also Read: ED being used to 'harass' Opposition parties: Congress

Sonia was questioned for over 11 hours in three days last month while Rahul was quizzed for over 50 hours in five days in June. Kharge and Bansal were questioned in April.

According to the Congress, it gave a Rs Rs 90 crore loan to Associated Journals Ltd, which runs National Herald, between 2001-02 and 2010-11 and later, in 2011, the shares of AJL were allotted to Young Indian as part of debt restructuring.

The ED is of the view that these transactions attract anti-money laundering charges as a complex web of transactions and routing of funds were undertaken by the Congress and its leaders to acquire AJL's assets worth multiple crores of rupees.

Sonia and Rahul told the ED that no personal assets were created in the deal as Young Indian is a "not-for-profit" company formed under Section 25 of the Companies Act. They also highlighted that the AJL continues to own the assets and the Young Indian neither owns nor controls the properties.