ED grills Rahul Gandhi for over ten hours on Day-2, summoned again today
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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for the third time in a row on Wednesday. The Congress leader was questioned for more than over ten hours by officers of the federal agency for the second consecutive day on Tuesday in the National Herald money-laundering case.
The Congress leader had asked ED officers to complete the questioning on Tuesday itself however late it gets, but the agency declined it, asking him to appear again, say sources.
On Day 2, Mr Gandhi arrived at the agency's office at 11:30 am with his "Z+" category security and left close to midnight.
Earlier in the day, top Congress leaders like Harish Rawat and Randeep Singh Surjewala were detained from outside the Congress office as they tried marching to the ED's office. Many workers have also been detained.
Congress workers and senior leaders were seen in physical altercations with the police and security forces as they were stopped from entering the cordoned-off area. Several were detained as they tried to reach the party office.
Sources say Mr. Gandhi was asked around 25 questions yesterday and is expected to spend a long day at the probe agency's office again. Unlike with the police, statements made to an ED officer are admissible in court.
The probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in Young Indian Private Limited, promoted by the Congress, that owns National Herald. National Herald is published by Associated Journals Limited, or AJL.
The Congress again slammed the BJP-led Centre and accused it of using the probe agency as an "election management department" which it claimed has lodged over 5,000 cases to intimidate political adversaries. The cases vanish when one joins the BJP, the party alleged.
Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that the government fears Mr Gandhi and that's the only reason it is 'targetting' him.
Congress has alleged that the questioning is BJP's "vendetta politics". Union Minister Smriti Irani had said the party was trying to pressurise the probe agency and the protest was not to save democracy but to save Rahul Gandhi's properties worth ₹ 2,000 crore.
