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ED again quizzes Sonia in Herald case, Rahul detained amid protest
Delhi Police said they had sent a letter to the Congress party, reminding them that large gatherings would not be allowed in the New Delhi area because of the enforcement of Section 144.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi for the second time in the National Herald case, asking her about her day-to-day role in Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI), its funding, and the takeover of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), even as Congress leaders staged protests in multiple cities, including the national capital.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was questioned by ED in the same case for over 50 hours over the course of five days last month, was detained by police at Vijay Chowk along with several other leaders. The Congress has termed the questioning political vendetta and misuse of federal agencies by the Centre, and Tuesday’s stir and police action further widened the chasm between the government and Opposition in the middle of a stormy monsoon session of Parliament.
Sonia Gandhi, 75, reached the ED headquarters accompanied by Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and was questioned for six hours (with a lunch break) in two sessions that started at 11am and ended around 7pm.
She has been asked to appear before ED on Wednesday as well.
Officials familiar with the probe said Tuesday’s questioning revolved around the aspects related to functioning of the National Herald newspaper, role of its various office-bearers, and her and her son’s participation in its daily affairs. AJL ran the National Herald newspaper since 1937, but it was taken over by YI in 2010.
The statements are being recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and she was questioned for the first time in the case on July 21.
After dropping his mother at the ED office, Rahul Gandhi joined other MPs assembled in Parliament, and marched towards Vijay Chowk on the way to Rashtrapati Bhavan to draw the President’s attention to the issue, but was stopped by police.
“I am not going anywhere. We wanted to go towards the President’s house but the police are not allowing us,” Rahul Gandhi said on social media.
“Look at the dictatorship, cannot hold peaceful demonstrations, cannot discuss inflation and unemployment. By misusing the police and agencies, even by arresting us, you will never be able to silence us. Only ‘Truth’ will end this dictatorship,” he tweeted, while sharing pictures of his protest.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, alleged that he, along with other MPs, was manhandled by police, adding that this is being done at the instance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.
“This is a conspiracy by the Modi-Shah duo,” he said.
Delhi Police said they had sent a letter to the Congress party, reminding them that large gatherings would not be allowed in the New Delhi area because of the enforcement of Section 144.
A press statement issued by Sagar Preet Hooda, special commissioner of police (zone II), said “the protesters were appropriately warned about the prohibitory orders in force in the area and repeatedly requested to disperse, but they continued the protest thereby violating prohibitory orders.”
Police said a total of 259 people, including over 50 MPs, were detained. They added that they are also probing an alleged incident where a protest tried to set a motorcycle on fire near Claridges Hotel during the day.
“Appropriate legal action is being taken in the matter,” Hooda said.
Protests were all carried out in Raipur, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Nagpur among other cities.
AJL was founded in November 1937 by Jawaharlal Nehru and published the National Herald, Qaumi Awaz in Urdu and Navjeevan in Hindi. Income Tax proceedings, initiated in 2017, which are the basis of ED’s probe, revealed that YI purchased the ₹90.21 crore interest free loan given by the All India Congress Committee to AJL, by making a payment of only ₹50 lakh to the former.
Investigators said YI was founded in November 2010, just 23 days prior to assignment of the ₹90 crore loan, with a nominal capital of ₹5 Lakh. “Young Indian did not even have any funds of its own for purchase of the loan of ₹90 crore of the AICC,” an IT department document seen by HT stated.
The Congress has repeatedly said that the transaction was done to help save the newspaper and pay the salaries of journalists and staffers at a time when AJL faced huge debts. It argues that the decision helped revive the organisation and blames the central government of raking up an old issue to target the Gandhi family.
Hitting out at the Congress, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra claimed the Congress thinks it is entitled to indulge in “dacoity” and no one should question it.
“See the height of their hypocrisy and double-standards that those who encouraged corruption will stage the so called satyagrah at the Father of the Nation’s statue. They will malign Bapu’s name. If Mahatma Gandhi is watching from somewhere, he would be thinking the decision to dissolve the Congress was very correct,” Patra said, referring to Congress’s ‘satyagrah’ protest infront of Gandhi statue in Parliament.
