Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi's third round of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald money laundering case concluded for the day on Wednesday. Gandhi was questioned by the central agency for three hours on Wednesday. News agency PTI reported that there has been no fresh summons issued to Gandhi as of now.
She had reached the federal agency's office in central Delhi at 11 am accompanied by her children Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi.
The session began around 11:15am by a team of investigators that includes the main probe officer and a person who takes down statements dictated by Gandhi on a computer.
Priyanka stayed back at the 'Pravartan Bhawan' ED headquarters in order to provide any assistance or medical care to her mother like the earlier times.
{{/usCountry}}Priyanka stayed back at the 'Pravartan Bhawan' ED headquarters in order to provide any assistance or medical care to her mother like the earlier times.
{{/usCountry}}The 75-year-old Gandhi has been questioned for over eight hours during the last two appearances, where she faced close to 65-70 questions. The questioning was expected to end Wednesday with the agency putting across a set of another 30-40 questions to Gandhi.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police detained several Congress MPs and workers, who were protesting against the questioning of Gandhi by the ED. Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress MPs Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Shakti Singh Goyal, Ranjeet Ranjan and Manickam Tagore among others were detained. They were taken to Kingsway camp police line in a bus.
The Congress MPs led a protest march from Vijay Chowk to the President's House. Congress MP Manish Tewari, who was detained, said they want to raise the voice of the common people in Parliament
The questioning pertains to the charge of alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.
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The sessions took place with Covid-appropriate protocols in place and were recorded in an audio-video mode.
The Congress has slammed the agency's action against its top leadership and termed it as "political vendetta" and "harassment".
The Delhi Police, like the last two times, deployed a huge force, including CRPF and RAF personnel, and barricaded the entire over one kilometre stretch between Gandhi's residence on Janpath-Akbar Road and the ED office. Traffic restrictions were also imposed in the area.
Rahul has also been questioned by the ED in this case last month in sessions that clocked over 50 hours over five days.
The move to question the Gandhis was initiated after the ED late last year registered a fresh case under the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
This was after a trial court in New Delhi took cognisance of an Income Tax department probe against Young Indian based on a private criminal complaint by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and majority shareholders in Young Indian. Like her son, the Congress president too has 38 per cent shareholding.
Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds, with Young Indian paying only ₹50 lakh to obtain the right to recover ₹90.25 crore that Associate Journals Limited owed to the Congress.
(With inputs from agencies)