Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday again reached the office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in connection with the money laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper case. Gandhi, earlier in the day, reached the ED office accompanied by several senior party leaders including Ashok Gehlot, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Priyanka Gandhi along with a sea of Congress supporters. Congress termed his walk to the ED office as ‘Satyagrah March’.
Rahul Gandhi, who entered the headquarters of the federal agency in central Delhi around 11:10 am, was put to questioning about 20 minutes later after he finished some brief legal proceedings and marked his attendance. He was allowed by the ED to leave for lunch around 2:10 pm and he returned for the questioning around 3:30 pm, officials said. Gandhi wrote down his statement under section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during the first round of questioning. During the break, Rahul Gandhi along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi visited his mother Sonia Gandhi at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the national capital.
10 Top Developments From The Big Story:
– Congress leader Rahul Gandhi returned to the ED office for the second round of questioning. He left the ED office after he was questioned for nearly three hours in connection with the National Herald case. Sources said that during the first round of questioning, Gandhi was asked about his assets and bank accounts in and outside the country.
– Apart from Rahul, his mother and interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also been summoned in the same case. She will appear before the financial probe agency on June 23.
– Delhi Police on Monday detained Congress workers including Adhir Ranjan Chaudhari, KC Venugopal, Deepender Hooda and Jairam Ramesh among other MPs who joined a huge protest by Congress workers who shouted slogans against the central government.
On Sunday Delhi Police had cited a “law and order situation” denied permission to the Congress protest march and had imposed prohibitory orders near the Congress headquarters.
– “We will hold a peaceful protest march to the ED office under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. We are the protectors of the Constitution, we will not bow down or be scared. By deploying a large police force, it has been proven that the Modi government is shaken by Congress,” Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
– The former Congress president first left for the ED office from the Congress headquarters on Akbar Road in the morning and was accompanied by party leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram.
– The lane leading to the ED office was barricaded and prohibitory orders under CrPC section 144 were imposed in the area by the Delhi Police even as anti-riots police RAF and CRPF contingents took positions to stop unauthorised people from entering.
The investigating officer of the case, an assistant director-rank officer of the ED, is understood to have put possible questions about the incorporation of the Young Indian company, the operations of the National Herald, the loan given by the Congress party to AJL and the funds transfer within the news media establishment.
– The probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian that owns the National Herald newspaper. The National Herald is published by the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and owned by Young Indian Pvt Limited.
– The Congress party said in a press conference in the morning that the 1937-established AJL faced huge debts and the party, during 2002-11, gave Rs 90 crore to the National Herald newspaper to pay the salaries of the journalists and staffers who worked there. The agency has questioned senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal in April as part of the investigation.
– The Congress party had called the ED action “vendetta”. It has termed the charges “fake and baseless” and added that the summonses to the Gandhis were part of the BJP’s “vendetta politics”. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and shareholders of Young Indian.
