ED attaches Rs 752 cr assets of Congress' National Herald

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has attached immovable assets and equity shares worth about ₹752 crore as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation against the Congress-promoted National Herald newspaper and companies linked to it.

The provisional attachment order came as the elections in five states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram are in progress and the counting of votes is scheduled to be held on December 3.

The Congress called the agency action as "petty vendetta tactics" and dubbed the ED a "coalition partner" of the BJP which, it claimed, is staring at a certain defeat in the assembly polls.


The federal probe agency alleged in a statement that in this case the shareholders and donors of the Congress were "cheated" by the office-bearers of AJL and the party.

A provisional attachment order has been issued by the federal probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL) and Young Indian (YI). The National Herald is published by AJL and owned by Young Indian Private Limited. Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are majority shareholders of Young Indian with 38% shares held by each one of them.