NEW DELHI: Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday sought Speaker Om Birla's intervention over the questioning of Rahul Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate for hours, alleging that "inhuman treatment" with a Member of Parliament smacks of "heinous conspiracy" to settle a political score.
Gandhi appeared before the ED on Wednesday for the third consecutive day of questioning in the National Herald money laundering case, with the agency seeking answers about his "personal role" in taking decisions with regard to the media organisation and its owner Young Indian.
In a letter to Birla, Chowdhury said, "With heavy heart I along with my colleagues have been expressing grievances to you that our esteemed colleague Rahul Gandhi ji, has been undergoing inexplicable tormentation for consecutive three days by Enforcement directorate of India in Delhi, he has been grilled on an average 10 to 11 hours per day on the pretext of examination on some wild allegations."
"This kind of inhuman treatment with a Member of Parliament smacks of heinous conspiracy to settle political score," the Congress' leader in Lok Sabha said.
"We all regard you as our custodian and hence seek your intervention into the humiliation being meted out to Rahul Gandhi," Chowdhury said in his letter to Birla.
Top Congress leaders have been protesting and courting arrest in solidarity with Gandhi for the last three days as he has been appearing for questioning before the ED.
The case pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.
The newspaper is published by the AJL and owned by Young Indian Private Limited.