ED seals Young Indian's office; police forces deployed outside Sonia Gandhi's residence

New Delhi: Day after raids at the head office of the National Herald newspaper in Delhi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday (August 3) 'temporarily sealed' the premises of the Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL) located in the Congress-owned office. The ED officials told PTI that the action has been taken to "preserve the evidence" which could not be collected as authorised representatives were not present during the raids on Tuesday. 

The rest of the National Herald office remains open, sources told the news agency. As per the officials, the ED sleuths had emailed the principal officer/incharge of the Young Indian office to open the premises for the central agency to conduct the searches, however, a response was awaited. 

The ED had raided multiple locations including the National Herald office as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation on Tuesday. The searches were executed under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to "gather additional evidence with regard to the trail of funds and they are against those entities who were involved in the National Herald-linked transactions", the officials stated. 

The raids came after the central probe agency questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi for nearly three hours on July 27. Earlier, the ED had also questioned Rahul Gandhi in connection with the National Herald-AJL-Young Indian deal case. 

The National Herald newspaper is published by and registered in the name of Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL) and its holding company is Young Indian. 

Congress had hit out at the Centre over the raids and called it “vendetta politics”. Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary, said, "The raids on Herald House, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg are a part of the continued attack against India's principal opposition -- Indian National Congress."

"We strongly condemn this vendetta politics against those who speak up against the Modi Govt. You cannot silence us!" he added. 

Meanwhile, Additional forces of Delhi Police has been deployed outside the office and 10 Janpath - residence of Sonia Gandhi, ANI reported. Jairam Ramesh shared a video showing police forces outside the AICC headquarters in Delhi. "Delhi Police blocking the road to AICC Headquarters has become a norm rather than an exception! Why have they just done so is mysterious...," Ramesh wrote in a tweet. 

(With agency inputs)