By Online Desk
NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday was asked to appear before it again on Tuesday in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper, officials said.
They said the questioning on Monday continued well past 9 pm and would end soon.
Gandhi, who entered the headquarters of the federal agency in central Delhi around 11.10 am, was put to questioning about 20 minutes later after he finished some brief legal proceedings and marked his attendance.
He was allowed by the ED to leave for lunch around 2:10 pm and he returned for the questioning around 3:30 pm, officials said.
The probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian that owns the National Herald newspaper.
The National Herald is published by the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and owned by Young Indian Pvt Limited.
The Congress on Monday alleged that the Delhi police made a “murderous attack” on its leader K C Venugopal and others during their protest march taken out in solidarity with Rahul Gandhi, with P Chidambaram and Pramod Tiwari sustaining hairline fractures in their ribs.
Thousands of Congress workers carried out protest marches in the national capital as well as state capitals against the ED action on the former Congress president.
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that some other Congress leaders also sustained injuries as Delhi police beat them up and detained thousands of its workers since last night.
“Atrocities of Delhi police and Modi government have not stopped. They have made a murderous attack on AICC general secretary Organisation K C Venugopal and have mercilessly beaten up Delhi in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Shaktisinh Gohil with lathis.
See the atrocities of Delhi police that former Home Minister and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram was also roughed up and his rib was broken and his spectacles were found broken on the road outside AICC office,” Surjewala alleged in a video message.
Does the Modi government not know on how to treat a former Home minister of the country? he asked.
The Congress leader also alleged that another Rajya Sabha MP, Pramod Tiwari, was thrown on the road and his rib was fractured.
Both Chidambaram and Tiwari have sustained hair-line fractures, he claimed.
“When three big, burly policemen crash into you, you are lucky to get away with a suspected hairline crack! Doctors have said that if there is a hairline crack, it will heal by itself in about 10 days. I am fine and I will go about my work tomorrow,” Chidambaram also tweeted.
Surjewala alleged that the Modi government has crossed every limit of barbarism.
“Is this a democracy?” he said.
“The entire day has passed, the attack continues. A deadly attack was launched on Congress Organisation General Secretary KC Venugopal by targeting him. Democracy has been trampled. The country will not forgive the Modi government,” Surjewala said in a tweet in Hindi.
The Congress leader asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi how much more atrocities he was going to commit.
Surjewala, who too was detained by the police, said the party will not bow down to such tactics and will continue to work on path of democracy.
“You can beat them and commit atrocities on them, but the Modi government has reminded everyone of the British regime.
The Congress fought with the British and will now fight against you till democracy wins,” he said.
Videos and pictures of Venugopal being dragged by Delhi police and later sitting in a police station in a haggard state emerged on social media during the day.
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also met Venugopal later at the Tughlaq road Police Station, where Harish Rawat, former Uttarakhand chief minister, was also present.
Meanwhile, BJYM, the youth wing of the BJP, mocked Indian Youth Congress president B V Srinivas by sharing on Twitter a video of him running away from the police as he was being accosted by them.
The 30-second-long video showed Srinivas giving a byte to media earlier in the day in which he is saying We do not fear the police and will carry out a march.
The jibe was rebutted by Srinivas through another video he posted on his Twitter account that showed him resisting arrest and in the process getting roughed up by the police.
He captioned the video: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win – Mahatma Gandhi.
Srinivas too was detained by the police.
(With PTI Inputs)
