Ahead of ED questioning in the National Herald case, Sonia Gandhi tests Covid-19 positive

Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that the party president "has developed mild fever and some symptoms and has isolated herself and has been given requisite medical attention"

Pic: IANS

New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi has reportedly tested positive for Covid-19. Congress' Randeep Surjewala told news agencies, "Congress president Sonia Gandhi tests positive for Covid-19. She has developed mild fever and some symptoms and has isolated herself and has been given requisite medical attention. As of today, her date of appearance before ED on June 8th stands as it is." 

Sonia was asked to appear before the agency on June 8 in an official notice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) while Rahul, who is reportedly not in town, was asked to join the investigations on June 2 but the former Congress president sought a time after June 5, as he is not in the country, party sources said on Wednesday (June 1).  "When the Congress was not scared of the British and their atrocities, how can the ED notices break the courage of Sonia Gandhiji, Rahul Gandhiji and the Congress party. We will fight...we will win...we will not bow down...we will not be afraid," Congress tweeted from its official handle.

"Both the leaders will appear before the ED...we will face them. We are not a bit scared, overawed, or intimidated by such tactics," senior party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told a press conference on Wednesday along with chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, as they attacked the Narendra Modi government. Singhvi further said that it is a politically motivated case and doesn't warrant any merits to be investigated. Surjewala and Singhvi confirmed that the Gandhis will join the probe whenever ED wants it.

According to Singhvi, the National Herald is published by Associated Journals Ltd, which had accumulated debts, following which Congress pumped in around Rs 90 crore over decades. "AJL did what every company in India or abroad does. It converted its debt into equity. Rs 90 crore equity was assigned to a new company Young India," he said. The Young India, in which Sonia, Rahul and some other Congress leaders held shares, was registered as a not-for-profit company and through the transaction, the AJL became a debt-free company, Singhvi said. "There was not even a transfer of a small property, there was no transfer of money. Where is money laundering then? Where is the money? No money was transferred...Yet a case of money laundering was registered. Young India cannot use the money in any form which it gets because it can neither pay dividends nor accumulate profit that it can give," Singhvi said.