Rahul Gandhi, the Congress Party’s leader in India, is scheduled to testify before a federal department on Monday in relation to corruption charges.

To coincide with his visit, members of his party were anticipated to march from the Congress headquarters to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which combats financial crime. However, police have denied authorization for the march.

They also apprehended some Congress members at a demonstration in the national capital of Delhi before Gandhi’s arrival.

Also read: Rahul Gandhi to appear before ED today: All you need to know

The ED earlier summoned Gandhi and his mother, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, to clarify laundering claims in the National Herald Case.

Gandhi was diagnosed with Covid and was hospitalised to a hospital on Sunday; a party official stated that her status is “stable.” The ED has given her a new summons for June 23rd.

Subramanian Swamy, a lawmaker from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), filed the action, accusing the Gandhis of misusing party funds to purchase the inoperative National Herald newspaper.

The Gandhis refute any financial wrongdoing.

History of National Herald

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister and Rahul Gandhi’s great grandfather, founded the National Herald newspaper in 1938.

Also read: BJP MLA Shalabh Mani Tripathi posts video of UP cops beating ‘rioters’, calls it return gift

The paper was published by Associated Journals Limited (AJL), a company created in 1937 by 5,000 other independence fighters. The firm also published two more dailies, the Urdu Qaumi Awaz and the Hindi Navjeevan.

The National Herald, sculpted by some of the most powerful figures of the period, became synonymous with India’s freedom struggle, earning it the title of the country’s foremost nationalist newspaper.

The British authorities derided the newspaper’s harsh and sharp editorial style – Nehru often penned strong-worded editorials – and banned it in 1942, causing the daily to close down. However, three years later, the newspaper reopened.

After becoming Prime Minister of India in 1947, Nehru retired as Chairman of the Board of Newspapers.

The Congress party, however, maintained to play a significant role in moulding the newspaper’s worldview. Nehru himself stated in an address to the National Herald on its silver jubilee in 1963 that the paper “generally favouring Congress policy” while keeping an “independent outlook.”

Also read: Why India’s Enforcement Directorate stays mired in political controversy?

The National Herald went then became one of India’s premier English daily under the tutelage of some of the country’s best journalists, despite the fact that it was still subsidised by the Congress party.

However, due to financial constraints, the daily suspended operations once more in 2008. It was resurrected as a digital publication in 2016.

Allegations against Congress

Subramanian Swamy filed the action against the Gandhis in a trial court in 2012.

Swamy claims that the Gandhis utilised Congress party funding and took over AJL to try to buy land worth more than Rs 20 billion.

AJL owed Congress Rs 900 million ($13 million) when it shut down the National Herald in 2008.

In 2010, Congress allocated this debt to Young India Private Limited, a non-profit organisation formed just a few months before. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi serve on its board of directors, and each owns 38% of the company.

Congress officials Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, writer Suman Dubey, and entrepreneur Sam Pitroda hold the remaining 24 percent, according to the complaint.

Also read: Opposition assemble: Leaders chuck differences for the ‘sake of our nation’

Swamy claims that the Gandhis used deception to “take over” assets worth millions of dollars in a “malicious” manner.

Young India allegedly gained entire control of AJL and its real estate holdings in Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, and other cities.

Congress defense

The party called it “a strange case of alleged money laundering without any money” and accused the BJP of “political vendetta.”

It declares that the Congress, which has ruled India for the majority of the time since independence, will “not be cowed down” and will “fight it out.”

According to the party, Congress bailed out Herald publisher AJL when it fell into financial difficulties because it trusted in its historical value. Over time, Congress loaned around 900 million rupees to the AJL.

According to the party, AJL became debt-free in 2010 when it exchanged its debt for equity and handed the shares to the newly formed Young India Private Limited.

According to Congress, Young India is a “not-for-profit company,” and no dividends have been given to its directors or shareholders.

It claims that the AJL “continues to be the owner, printer and publisher of National Herald and that there is no change or transfer of property.”

Also read: Congress president Sonia Gandhi tests positive for Covid-19, isolates self

The BJP, according to party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi, was “disrespecting and dishonouring India’s freedom fighters, the stalwarts of the nation and their contributions to the freedom struggle” by attacking the National Herald.

He also accused the administration of employing the ED and other federal law enforcement organisations to harass political opponents.

The BJP government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been heavily accused of employing government agencies to persecute its critics.