NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi for over six hours in the National Herald money laundering case amid the party’s protests over the alleged misuse of investigative agencies for political gains.
This was her second day at the ED. On July 21, she had responded to 28 questions by the ED team and spent over two hours at its office. Sonia has been summoned to appear again on Wednesday. Like last time, Sonia was accompanied by daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and son Rahul Gandhi.
While Priyanka stayed back at the agency in another room, Rahul left soon thereafter. In the first half of the day, Sonia was questioned for about 2.5 hours while the post-lunch session went on for over 3.5 hours. Rahul later led a protest march of Congress MPs from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan.
He and over 50 other Congress parliamentarians were detained by the Delhi Police at Vijay Chowk. “India is a police state now, that’s the truth. PM Modi is a king, and this is a police state. What will happen if MPs cannot meet the President?” Rahul told the media.
Leaders of several opposition parties wrote to new President Droupadi Murmu alleging the misuse of Central agencies to target them and sought her intervention. The detained Congress MPs converted their detention into a brainstorming session on issues like price rise, Agnipath and GST on food items.