The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday temporarily sealed the premises of the Young Indian in the Congress-owned National Herald office in Delhi in an alleged connection with a money laundering case and instructed that the “premises not be opened without prior permission from the agency”.
However ED allowered the rest of the National Herald office is open for use, the sources said.
ED raided the newspaper’s Bahadurshah Zafar Marg office and 11 other locations on Tuesday as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation, officials said, a week after the agency questioned Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi.
The probe agency has already questioned her MP-son, Rahul Gandhi.
The probe agency said only the Young Indian (YI) office has been temporarily sealed as there was no one from their side to get the searches conducted.
“The principal officer Mallikarjun Kharge came but left the premises without getting the searches conducted. Summons has been sent to the principal officer (Mallikarjun Kharge) to get the search concluded. As and when the authorized person presents himself for concluding the search, the seal will be lifted,” the ED said.
Meanwhil Delhi Police has barricaded the roads near Congress headquarters at 24 Akbar Road to avoid any protest-like situation by the party workers and deployed additional force outside 10 Janpath, the residence of Sonia Gandhi.
Observing the developments Taking to Twitter, the Congress slammed the sealing of the office and deployment of police forces outside its headquarters in Delhi.
The party said, “The voice of truth will not be afraid of police guards…questions of inflation and unemployment will still be asked.”
Reacting on ED’s action, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said the party will give answers to the probe agency through legal ways.
“If there is any reason, it will come out. If you want to do something against anybody you have to inform in advance.”
Hearing the news thosands of Congress workers gathered outside the Herald House building and staged protests against the raid on Tuesday.
“We strongly condemn this vendetta politics against those who speak up against the Modi Government. You cannot silence us!,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Later, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Kumar Bansal also visited the Herald House in the evening.
Officials had said the searches were carried out under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to “gather additional evidence with regard to the trail of funds”.
The raid taken place in which the address is registered in the name of Associated Journals Ltd, which publishes the newspaper.
