Rahul Gandhi has been questioned in detail about the ownership of Young Indian Private Limited (YIL) by the Gandhi family and its shareholding pattern in Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the company that runs the National Herald newspaper.
Patra said that the public knows about the involvement of a family and Rahul Gandhi's role in misusing the country's money through the National Herald scam. "It is natural that if corruption is done then there will be an inquiry," he added.
Congress workers are holding protests across the country today against the "anti-youth" Agnipath scheme and the central government's "vendetta politics" targeting party leader Rahul Gandhi, who is being questioned by the ED in a money laundering case.
Indian Youth Congress workers stopped a train and blocked railway tracks at Delhi's Shivaji Bridge railway station in protest against the ED.
Rahul Gandhi was questioned by the ED for over 27 hours on three straight days from June 13 to June 15. The Congress leader was deposed before the ED investigators in the case for the first time on June 13.
Gandhi first sought exemption from appearance on June 16, following which he was called on June 17. But the senior Congress leader wrote to the ED to postpone his questioning citing the illness of his mother Sonia Gandhi. The ED then allowed him to join the probe on June 20 at his request.
Investigators in the ED had asked Rahul Gandhi to describe the circumstances under which AJL was acquired by YIL in 2010, making it the owner of all assets owned by the National Herald newspaper.
The National Herald, started by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was published by the AJL. In 2010, the AJL, which faced financial difficulties, was taken over by a newly-floated YIL with Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda as directors, both of them Gandhi loyalists.
The Congress leader is being questioned under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED is also investigating the financial transactions as well as the role of party functionaries in the functioning of AJL and YIL.
National Herald is published by the Associated AJL and owned by YIL.
There are allegations that AJL was founded in the 1930s to print National Herald and had 5,000 freedom fighters as shareholders. AJL is now in Gandhi's family ownership. AJL declared in 2008 that it would not print newspapers anymore and will enter real estate.
In 2010, a new firm called YIL is incorporated with ₹5 lakh and with Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi among other Congress leaders as directors. It pledges to do charity but does none till 2016, as per allegations.
It is also alleged that AJL's 9 crore shares (99 pc of all) are transferred to YIL and that Rahul Gandhi alone holds 75% shares while Sonia and other senior Congress own the rest.
There is another set of allegations that Congress gave AJL a ₹90-crore loan which Congress writes off in lieu of alleged ownership of AJL assets worth ₹2,000 crore.
However, Congress claims that loan was given to pay salaries of AJL staffers and to save National Herald and that YIL is a not-for-profit company and its ownership still vests with AJL.
