Congress President Sonia Gandhi has been asked to appear for questioning again on Wednesday, a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) quizzed her for over six hours on her second day in the National Herald newspaper case.
Officials said that the 75-year-old has been asked to appear today in the money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper.
After recording her statement, Gandhi had left the office of the central agency in Delhi at around 7 pm yesterday. She reached the ED office on Tuesday morning surrounded by armed security cover.
She was accompanied by both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. While Rahul left to protest, Priyanka stayed back with her at the ED office.
Sonia Gandhi was asked about 30 questions regarding her involvement with the National Herald newspaper and Young Indian Pvt Ltd, which are under the scanner, officials informed.
Her questioning began at around 11 am and went on for nearly 2.5 hours after which a 90-minute lunch break allotted. She was then questioned until 7 pm after that. The team that did the questioning was led by additional director Monika Sharma.
Lok Sabha MP from Rae Bareli, Gandhi was asked about the functioning and running of the newspaper, the role of its office bearers and her and Rahul Gandhi’s involvement in the running of the National Herald and Young Indian.
Officials said that they will match her statements to that of Rahul’s, who had been questioned earlier, as both are the majority stakeholders in Young Indian Pvt Ltd.
Meanwhile, the Congress has termed the agency’s crackdown as a ‘political vandetta’. The police made a massive deployment and cordoned off the lane from Sonia Gandhi’s residence to the ED office to prevent a law and order breach. Movement of traffic was also restricted in the area.
Rahul Gandhi and other party MPs had gathered at the Vijay Chowk to march to the Rashtrapati Bhavan in order to draw the attention of the President towards allegedly blatant misuse of central agencies by the government.
Rahul said, “I am not going anywhere. We wanted to go towards the President's house. But the police are not allowing us.”
It may be noted that Sonia Gandhi could not appear earlier for questioning on June 8 after testing positive for Covid-19 and being hospitalized. The Congress leader had developed a mild fever on June 1 evening and was found Covid-19 positive upon testing the next morning.
After her discharge from the hospital, she had asked for more time to appear before the agency.
Last month the ED also questioned Rahul Gandhi for five days in the National Herald case.
