E-Paper
After 3 days of National Herald stir, detentions, Congress MPs' meet today
National Herald case: Rahul Gandhi's questioning started earlier this week and will continue in the case on Friday.
After three days of protests, detentions and massive political drama that unfolded on the streets of Delhi, Congress MPs are set to hold a meeting at the parliamentary party office on Thursday. The focus of the meeting, news agency ANI reported, would be the alleged mistreatment of the party MPs by the Delhi Police during the agitations against the Enforcement Directorate's questioning of Rahul Gandhi.
A delegation - led by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury - is set to meet Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla on the matter too.
Many MPs of the grand old party - over the past few days - have been detained in the last few days after the "Satygraha" protest was launched against the summons to the Gandhis in the National Herald case probe Monday. Barricades, huge police security, dharnas, sloganeering described the scenes near the party headquarters on Akbar Road.
On Wednesday, the third day of Rahul Gandhi's questioning, the protests escalated with Congress women workers being forcefully removed from roads where they were staging dharna and protesters burning tires on roads. Congress leader Ajay Maken posted videos, alleging that the Delhi :Police had forcibly entered the party office.
Several party leaders tweeted about the incident, including former union minister P Chidambaram. "What the police did at the AICC office this morning was an outrageous violation of liberty. The police had no search warrant or arrest warrant, yet they entered the office, pulled out Congress leaders and members, including MPs, and threw them on the road," he tweeted.
And in another post, he added: "The roughing up of Mr Adhir Ranjan Choudhary and others has been captured on video. Every legal norm and political norm in a democracy was violated. We condemn the action of the police in the strongest terms."
The Delhi Police, meanwhile, refuted the claims and accused the party of not taking required permission for its protests. The party threatened to “gherao”, or surround, Raj Bhavans, or the official homes of governors and lieutenant-governors - across India on Thursday.
Rahul Gandhi has been summoned for another round of questioning on Friday now. The ED is probing alleged misappropriation of funds in the takeover of the The Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which publishes the National Herald newspaper, by the party-backed Young Indians.
(With inputs from ANI)
