After being grilled for over 10 hours today for the second time, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has asked former Congress President Rahul Gandhi to reappear for questioning on Wednesday in connection with a money laundering case linked to National Herald newspaper, sources told news agency ANI. Even on Monday, Gandhi was grilled for about ten hours and summoned again for Tuesday.
Today, the Wayanad MP reached the ED office at around 11.07 am this morning and directly went inside without speaking to the media. A three-member team will reportedly interrogate him on Wednesday.
Here’s All You Need To Know About Rahul Gandhi’s ED Questioning
1. As the ED continued questioning Rahul Gandhi in Delhi for a second consecutive day today, the Congress continued its protest in various states to show solidarity with him. Ahead of his questioning, Gandhi joined senior party leaders at a ‘dharna’ at the Congress headquarters. Several Congress bigwigs including Priyanka Gandhi, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, Randeep Surjewala and others were present in the protest.
2. On Monday, Gandhi’s questioning ended at around 9 pm but he had to wait as he wanted make a few corrections in his statements. In between the questioning, he was also given a lunch break during which the Congress leader went to meet his ailing mother Sonia Gandhi at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
3. Congress President Sonia Gandhi has also been summoned im the matter. Delhi Police has detained several Congress leaders for trying to march towards the ED office where party leader Rahul Gandhi is being questioned. As many as 459 Congress partymen, including 26 MPs and 5 legislators from different state Assemblies, were detained on Monday.
4. Those detained were Randeep Surjewala, Jairam Ramesh, Gaurav Gogoi, Deepender Singh Hooda, Ranjeet Ranjan, Jeby Mather, Imran Pratapgarhi, Youth Congress chief B V Srinivas and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) chief Neeraj Kundan, with some of them even roughed up.
5. Meanwhile, the Congress asserted that its leaders cannot be cowed down by police force and will continue with the proposed Satyagrah march. Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala said: “We could not be intimidated by the British which failed to suppress our voice. We will not be cowed down by the police and march towards ED.”
What Is National Herald Money Laundering Case?
The case against the Gandhis was brought in a Delhi court by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy in 2012. Swamy has alleged that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi used Congress party funds and took over Associated Journals Limited (AJL) to try to acquire more than Rs 2000 crore in property assets for “only Rs 50 lakh”.
Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis used ‘malicious’ means to ‘take over’ assets worth millions as Young Indian acquired complete control of AJL and its real estate, located in Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and other cities.
(With inputs from agencies.)