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ED questions Rahul for 10 hours, asks him to appear again on Friday
Accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul arrived at the ED office at 11.30am and was questioned for nearly 10hourswith an hour-long break at around 3pm, people familiar with the matter said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the third consecutive day on Wednesday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper, amid fresh round of protests by and detention of party workers and supporters.
Accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul arrived at the ED office at 11.30am and was questioned for nearly 10hourswith an hour-long break at around 3pm, people familiar with the matter said.
Rahul has been questioned for around 30 hours since Monday, and ED have summoned him again on Friday.
The Congress termed the repeated summons as “harassment” and accused the BJP of using central agencies for political gains. The ruling party rejected the allegation, and accused the Congress of trying to disrupt the probe.
The case relates to alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian (YI), which owns the National Herald newspaper.
The ED registered a new case under the criminal provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after a trial court in Delhi took cognisance of an Income Tax department investigation into Young Indian Pvt Ltd on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.
According to the people cited above, ED has been questioning Rahul on the acquisition of AJL by YI, in which he is a 38% shareholder, the operations of the newspaper, a purported loan of ₹90.21 crore given by All India Congress Committee (AICC) to AJL and transactions related to development of a property in Mumbai. Rahul was interrogated for nearly 10 hours both on Monday and Tuesday, during which he was also questioned about a Kolkata-based company which allegedly gave a loan of ₹1 crore to YI, the people cited above said.
His mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also been summoned for questioning on June 23.
