About eight Congress leaders are said to be expecting notices from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking clarifications on the donations they made to the National Herald when the management wanted to settle pending salaries and other benefits to employees of the newspaper.
Sources said the ED notices were getting ready and even Congress leaders were expecting them to be served on them as the ED had yet again got active on the issue after being silent for several days after questioning Congress president Sonia Gandhi and also Parliament member Rahul Gandhi.
The names of the Congress leaders doing rounds include former ministers, J. Geetha Reddy, Mohammed Ali Shabbir and P. Sudarshan Reddy apart from former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav. The name of former Union Minister Renuka Chowdary also sprang up. However, none of them received the notices so far.
Mr. Shabbir Ali said that he had not received the notices so far but would cooperate with the authorities if they wished to speak to him. The Congress leaders apparently provided funds for the newspaper and the payments were made legally through cheques along with PAN details. This was done after the party wanted funds to pay the pending salaries and other benefits of employees of the National Herald. “The newspaper played a huge role in the Independence struggle and donating funds to such a prestigious newspaper is no crime,” a senior leader remarked.
Ms. Geetha Reddy and Mr. Anjan Yadav also denied receiving any notice from the ED.
