Rahul Gandhi grilled by ED, questioning to continue today

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper as the Congress party’s workers and leaders held protests in the capital and across the nation.
Rahul Gandhi was questioned for around ten hours, and has been called for questioning again on Tuesday. Sources said that ED was not satisfied with Rahul Gandhi’s answers following which he has been asked to rejoin the investigation tomorrow.
Senior Congress leaders accompanied Rahul Gandhi to the ED office, and were detained by police. Some leaders also sustained injury, including Former union minister P Chidambaram who got a hairline fracture in his ribs, and MP Parmod Tiwari who also had a fractured rib and got an injury in his head. Party leader KC Venugpopal and Shaktisinh Gohil also suffered injuries.
The former Congress president reached the headquarters of the federal agency in central Delhi around 11.10 am, and the questioning started around 20 minutes later after some brief legal proceedings and marked his attendance.
He left the ED office around 2.10 pm, and returned around 3.30 pm for questioning.
Roads leading to the Congress office in central Delhi were blocked since Monday morning to stop the protesters, and several Congress workers and leaders were also detained. Many Congress workers were detained from their homes in the national capital.
The former Congress president, accompanied by Priyanka Gandhi and other party leaders, started to walk towards the ED office in Janpath for questioning around 11 a.m..
He started from the Congress office at Akbar Road, but was stopped at a barricade at Motilal Nehru marg, from where he and Priyanka Gandhi boarded a car.
Other Congress leaders continued the march amid heavy police presence.
Senior leaders who were detained included Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik, Digvijaya Singh, Meenakshi Natarajan, Deepender Hooda, PL Punia, KC Venugopal, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Gaurav Gogoi among others,
Party leader Pawan Khera, who was also detained, tweeted a video saying they were being taken to Fatehpur Beri. “All jails in Delhi have been filled, but we will not give up,” Khera said.
Some Congress leaders including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and Venugopal were taken to the Tughlaq Roads police station, where they were later joined by Priyanka Gandhi.
Party’s Chief Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala and some other leaders were taken to Sarojini Nagar police station.
“The Rajasthan CM, who was also detained said the government is not concerned about inflation, unemployment, and added, “How long will you mislead the country by doing ‘Hindu-Muslim’? For 70 years all religions, castes, communities stayed together. Indira Gandhi lost her life but did not allow Khalistan to be created,” Gehlot said.
“We don’t know which direction they are taking the country in,” he said.
Addressing a press conference later, Gehlot said the protests across the country showed how people feel about the probe agencies.
“I thought of meeting ED, IT, CBDT chiefs. They’re prestigious agencies but what does the public think of them today? I sought an appointment and they gave me time. I don’t know what happened later but they told me that they themselves will meet me later in Jaipur,” Gehlot said.
On similar lines, Baghel said central agencies are being misused against the Opposition. “When the same leaders join BJP their corruption goes away,” he said.
Several top Congrese leaders remained detained till late on Monday night.
Delhi police said Section 144 was in force in the area since May 24. Police said they were assured leaders would not march with Rahul Gandhi.
Sagar Preet Hooda, Special Commissioner of Police said they were assured that leaders will not accompany Rahul Gandhi.
Police said 459 protestors were detained on Monday.
Around 15 Members of Lok Sabha, 11 Members of Rajya Sabha, and Leader of Opposition, 5 MLAs of different State Assemblies, two Chief Ministers and other workers of the Congress Party were among the detainees.
“Some complaints have been received at Tughlak Road Police Station regarding injuries to congress leaders and workers during police action but no such incident of use of force by police took place as per knowledge and no MLC case has been reported so far,” Hooda said.
“Still, if there were allegations of some manhandling or so during the detention, the same will diligently be looked into for appropriate action”, he said.

Congress has expressed unhappiness over the leak of questioning detail of Rahul Gandhi by the Enforcement directorate (ED).
He was questioned by the ED for 10 hours today and has been asked to appear before ED tomorrow also.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala sought an explanation from the government about leak of questioning detail.
He accused the government of indulging in a disinformation campaign against the Congress leader.
Surjewala said propaganda apparatus of Modi government is leaking questioning detail to the media despite the fact that it is a confidential matter. (UNI)