National Herald case: Wrote two emails to Kharge & Bansal, says ED

NEW DELHI: In a latest development in connection with the National Herald case, sources in Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that they had written two emails to Young Indian officials, (Congress' Mallikarjuna Kharge and Pawan Bansal) to assist them in the search operation, but none helped them.

"We were forced to seal the Young India (YI) office," sources claimed.

The sources said that both Bansal and Kharge were present at the office of YI when they reached there. The ED officials said that they requested them to join the search operations.

"But both of them immediately left the office... it shows they didn't want to help us. We then decided to take action," said the source.

The ED had sealed the office of Young India situated at the fourth floor of the National Herald building.

The ED had asked Kharge to designate an official of YI so that they could initiate search proceedings. But after hearing this, Kharge left the National Herald office and didn't provide them with any person, sources detailed.

"We wanted to make a seizure memo in front of that official of YI. As we weren't provided with anyone we had to seal it to keep the proof intact," the source said.

The ED has said that if Kharge provides them with an official of YI, who will assist them in the search, they will open the sealed office.

On Wednesday, the ED sealed the office of YI in the building of Herald House at Bahadurshah Zafar Marg.

The ED pasted an order on the building of the Herald House.

"This is hereby declared that this premises will not be opened without prior permission from the Directorate of Enforcement," read the order copy.

The sources had said that they did this so that the evidence was not tampered with.

"We had called Herald officials to assist us but senior persons were not cooperating and were not coming forward to assist in the search. We were left with no other options but to seal the office," the official said.

Recently, the ED questioned Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi for several days.

As of now the ED has not released any official statement in this respect.

Further details are awaited.