Sonia Gandhi is being questioned by ED officials in the national capital.
New Delhi:
As many as 75 Congress MPs, including opposition leader in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and several workers, were detained by Delhi police on Thursday for holding demonstrations against the interrogation of interim president Sonia Gandhi of the party by the enforcement directorate. (ED) in the National Herald case.
Senior Congress leaders including P Chidambaram, Ajay Maken, Manickam Tagore, KC Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chaudhry, Shashi Tharoor, Sachin Pilot, Harish Rawat. Ashok Gehlot, K Suresh and others are being held.
When MPs from the Congress left the parliament for the congress headquarters, about 75 MPs were taken in buses by the Delhi police.
Congressmen in Nagpur were also detained in the wake of the protest.
Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi is being questioned by ED officials in the national capital.
The interim president of the congress, accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, reached the ED office in the national capital. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also arrived at the ED office.
“All Congress MPs and CWC members have been arrested en masse outside our party headquarters in a show of collective solidarity with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, a target of Vishguru’s political vendetta. We are apparently being taken to a police station in Old Delhi,” said party leader Jairam Ramesh. .
Protesting congressional leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the ruling party (BJP) is showing its quirkiness by abusing the investigative agencies by asking them to target opposition leaders.
“They (the ruling party) want to show how powerful they are. We have raised the issue of inflation in parliament, but they are not ready for discussion. We are now raising the issue of abuse of central research bureaus said Mr Kharge.
Congressman Deepender S Hooda said they are protesting peacefully.
“We are protesting peacefully. They cannot suppress our voice,” said Mr Hooda.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who is also in Delhi, slammed the probe and said that since Sonia Gandhi is more than 70 years old, ED should have gone to her house for examination.
“The kind of personality and charisma she (Sonia Gandhi) has and since she is over 70 years old, ED should have gone to her house for examination. I want to meet the chief of ED and CBI and tell them what people think about central agencies,” said Mr Gehlot.
After Mr. Gehlot was detained, he said, “It is the first time in the country that they are stopping the dharna demonstration.”
“There is agency abuse in the country… it’s our right to protest in a democracy, but it’s also being crushed…” said Sachin Pilot.
The ED had subpoenaed Sonia Gandhi on June 1 to appear before its investigators for the first time on June 8 in a money laundering case involving the National Herald.
The ED wants to record the statements of both Sonia Gandhi under criminal sections of the Money Laundering Prevention Act (PMLA).
Last month, the ED had interrogated Rahul Gandhi several times in the case.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
