New Delhi

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday appeared before Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the National Herald case.

She was accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Rahul Gandhi also arrived at the ED office.

The ED had on June 1 summoned Sonia Gandhi to appear before its investigators on June 8 in the case for the first time.

The agency had issued similar summons to Sonia Gandhi on June 8 and then on June 21.

Sonia Gandhi could not appear for questioning after contracting Covid last month. The Congress leader had developed a mild fever on June 1 evening and was admitted to a hospital upon testing positive the next morning.

After her discharge from the hospital she had asked for more time to appear before the agency.

The case to investigate alleged financial irregularities was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

Swamy had approached the court alleging that the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL), in which Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi owned 38 per cent shares each.

He alleged that the Gandhis as promoters of YIL had misappropriated funds with YIL paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to the Congress party.

The ED in April had questioned senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal in connection with the case.

While Kharge is the CEO of YIL, Bansal is the Managing Director of AJL.

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Rahul Gandhi was earlier questioned by the ED several times in the case.