Cong workers take to streets to protest her questioning
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday questioned Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper. The issue of summons to the Congress president rocked Parliament even as the Congress workers took to the street to protest her questioning.
The agency summoned her again on July 25 for further questioning, officials said. She was questioned for about two hours and was allowed to leave on her request, officials said. However, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the ED told Sonia that they had no further questions and she could leave.
“The Congress president told the ED officials that “I am ready to return, I will answer your questions, it may take till 7 pm, 8 pm, 9 pm, I am ready to sit here”. But from the ED side it was said their doctor is not available in the afternoon and tomorrow the ED is busy with some court issue, Ramesh said.
ED quizzes Sonia in Herald case, summons her on July 25
She also told ED officials she was a Covid patient and needed to take her medicines so she should be informed about what time she should appear next.
“At 2:20 pm when the Congress president was preparing to leave for lunch, she was told by the ED officials that there was no need for her to come back. At 12:20 pm it was said ‘you should come back after lunch break’, at 2:20 pm it was said there is no need to come back,” Ramesh said.
According to Ramesh, the ED said it had nothing to ask of her either on Thursday or Friday. After which Sonia said she was willing to appear on Monday, Ramesh added.
She was initially summoned again on July 26 but this was advanced to July 25 at her insistence. He said Sonia’s questioning began at 12:20 pm and ED officials told her that the questioning will continue for two hours and then there will be a lunch break after which she would have to come back for questioning again. Her statement will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) like it was done for just over two hours on Thursday.
She reportedly replied to around 27-28 questions after which she told the officials that she needed to take her medicines at home owing to her recent Covid recovery. The agency allowed ending the day’s session on her request, officials said. While the Congress president was leaving, the ED asked her to depose on July 26 but Sonia suggested that she can come on July 25, to which both sides agreed, sources said.
The questioning session was conducted keeping in mind Covid protocol with everyone participating equipped with a Covid negative certificate. Sonia was questioned by the same Assistant Director-level investigation officer who interrogated her son Rahul Gandhi in the case. A woman officer was part of the questioning team as per the norm.
The money-laundering case relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns National Herald. The Congress president’s questioning took political centrestage in Parliament, where Opposition leaders raised the issue, and on the streets with party workers staging massive protests. As parts of central Delhi went into gridlock, Sonia reached the agency’s headquarters in Lutyens Delhi’s APJ Abdul Kalam Road a little after noon escorted by her Z+ CRPF security contingent. Ahead of the questioning, Sonia was seen wearing a mask, and was accompanied by her children Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Priyanka was allowed to stay in the Pravartan Bhawan headquarters of the agency, away from the questioning room, so she could be with her mother in case of a health issue and give her medicines. However, Rahul left soon after her questioning started. The Congress party slammed the ED’s action against its top leadership and termed it “political vendetta”. “All Congress MPs and CWC members have courted mass arrest outside our party headquarters in a show of collective solidarity with Congress president Sonia, a target of ‘Vishguru’s’ political vendetta,” said Congress general secretary Ramesh. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said in a Press conference that ED called Rahul last time and questioned him for 50 hours. “The world knows that Sonia is an idol of renunciation. She turned down the post of Prime Minister. Who has seen the martyrdom of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi. Such a woman is being harassed. The Government should be ashamed. She is being called for questioning at this age. But if there was anything to ask, then according to age and health, you could go home and ask,” he said.
His party colleague P Chidambaram said the ED is not higher than the Supreme Court. “What is that the ED wants to ‘investigate’ that will not be examined by the SC,” he asked.
Other Opposition leaders voiced their protest too. Leaders of 13 political parties, including the DMK, Shiv Sena, RJD and the Left, met at Parliament House and issued a statement accusing the Government of unleashing a “relentless campaign of vendetta against its political opponents and critics through the mischievous misuse of investigative agencies”. “Prominent leaders of a number of political parties have been deliberately targeted and subjected to harassment in an unprecedented manner,” the leaders said. The opposition’s Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha said he strongly condemned the ED’s attitude to humiliate political leaders. “The officers of ED shd have gone to her residence even if they had questions to ask of Sonia,” he said on Twitter. “Yet again the Extended Department (ED) of BJP is insulating the party from people’s anger towards price rise, joblessness and inflation. By repeatedly calling Opposition leaders with zero evidence against them is deliberate political vendetta carried out on behalf of the BJP,” said Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi.
In Parliament, the issue echoed as well where the Congress and other Opposition parties sought to raise the issue. With tempers running high on the issue, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi asked whether the Opposition party believes everyone is equal before the law or not. “Is she some ‘super human’ because she is the Congress president?” he asked.
The Congress chief had been summoned twice earlier but sought an exemption on grounds of Covid. Her statement was recorded by the agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Last month, Rahul was questioned by the agency in the case for over 50 hours in sessions spread across five days. The move to question Sonia was initiated after the ED late last year registered a fresh case under PMLA. This was after a trial court here took cognisance of an Income Tax department probe against Young Indian on the basis of a private criminal complaint by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.