New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was detained Tuesday in New Delhi after he led a march in the heart of the Capital to protest the interrogation of his mother Sonia Gandhi in an alleged money-laundering case.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Sonia Gandhi for several hours Tuesday, the second round of its questioning in the National Herald case, in which Rahul Gandhi is also a co-accused.
Rahul Gandhi was questioned for several days in June, sparking nationwide protests by Congress members. The ED is probing alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Pvt Ltd, which owns National Herald.
On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi sat on Rajpath – near Parliament and top government offices – and also protested over a range of other issues, from price rise to the alleged targeting of opposition leaders by central probe agencies.
After being detained, Rahul Gandhi was taken to the Parliament Street police station from Vijay Chowk, where he was protesting.
Around 50 MPs along with Rahul Gandhi were also detained from the North Fountain near Parliament. “They are being held in the Kingsway camp,” Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, Amrutha Guguloth said.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot accused the Centre of using its agencies to “muzzle the voice of the Opposition and to target Congress leaders”. “They’re just left with the work of targeting and sending notices to Opposition leaders and are being misused. Centre (is) snatching our rights to protest democratically,” Pilot said.
Meanwhile, the Opposition sent a letter to newly-elected President Droupadi Murmu complaining about the government’s reluctance to discuss price rise and increase in GST rates on essential food items.
Letter submitted to the Hon'ble President of India by Joint Opposition Parties. pic.twitter.com/7WzRHY6CNx
— Congress (@INCIndia) July 26, 2022
The letter also underscored the “continued and intensifying misuse of investigative agencies by the Modi Government as part of a systematic vendetta campaign against its political opponents. The law is the law and must be enforced without fear or favour. But it cannot be used, as it is presently being done, arbitrarily, selectively and without any justification whatsoever against prominent leaders of numerous Opposition parties”.
Rahul Gandhi had earlier complained the police were not allowing protesters to sit at Vijay Chowk. “This is the reality of India… it is a police state, this is the truth… Modiji is a ‘raja’ (king),” he said.
Also read: After Modi directive, BJP looks to include this Muslim community in its OBC Morcha