National Herald case: Rahul Gandhi detained amid ED questioning Sonia Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several other party officials were held by Delhi Police at Vijay Chowk during a march to Rashtrapati Bhavan to protest the ED’s questioning to party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi in the National Herald case. After being detained during protest march from Parliament to Vijay Chowk, Rahul Gandhi was taken to the Parliament Street police station. Congress leaders are protesting against the misuse of central probe agencies.

Before getting detained, Rahul Gandhi said, “All (Congress) MPs came here. They talked about inflation and unemployment. They (Police) are not allowing us to sit here. Discussions are not allowed inside (the Parliament) and here they are arresting us.”

Congress MPs were prevented from marching to Rashtrapati Bhavan. They were stopped at Vijay Chowk.

Congress leader and LoP Mallikarjun Kharge said “We`re protesting as per the instruction of the police. All of this is a conspiracy by PM Modi & Amit Shah to completely destroy the Opposition and muzzle our voices. We won`t be scared, our fight will continue.”

Deepender Hooda said, “We had demanded that there be discussion in Parliament on inflation, unemployment, Agnipath & misuse of agencies. Govt rejected it. We said we’ll protest at Rajghat on this, but weren`t permitted. We said that we`ll give a memorandum to President. They didn`t permit.” 

Sonia Gandhi arrived at the ED office in the national capital, accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader, also appeared at the ED headquarters. The first round of interrogation took place on July 21, when numerous Congress leaders were jailed as the party staged statewide demonstrations in support of the party chief.

Sonia Gandhi was summoned by the ED on June 1 to appear before its investigators in the case for the first time in connection with a money laundering investigation involving the National Herald. On June 8 and again on June 21, the agency issued similar summonses to Sonia Gandhi investigators.

Sonia Gandhi could not appear for questioning after testing positive and being hospitalized for Covid-19.

After her discharge, she was asked to appear before the agency. Last month the ED interrogated Rahul Gandhi on several occasions in the case.

ED is presently investigating the shareholding pattern and financial transaction.