From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi continued to be interrogated for the second consecutive day on Tuesday by three senior Enforcement Directorate officials at their headquarters for alleged money laundering in the purchase of the Associated Journals Limited, a company started by Jawaharlal Nehru to publish the National Herald and its sister Hindi and Urdu publications.
Alike on Monday, Rahul was given a lunch break after two hours of questioning. The ED office is heavily barricaded by the armed paramilitary forces and every passing-by car is checked by police to nab the Congress leaders trying to sneak in for the “satyagrah.”
A large number of the Congress leaders, who accompanied Rahul to the ED headquarters after a dharna with him at the AICC headquarters as part of the protest “Satyagrah,” were roughed up by police and driven to different police stations in the national capital for violating the prohibitory orders in vogue under Sectin 144 of the CrPC. The Congress resolved in the meeting that the Congress will not be cowed down by intimidation tactics of arrests or false cases cooked up against its top leaders.
Rahul was accompanied by his sister and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was let off by police since she was under a security cover, while those arrested included two chief ministers — Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel.
Former union home and finance minister P Chidambaram, who was injured in the police manhadling on Monday that was denied with a denial of the use of force, was back at the protest site, noting that the Congress is protesting against the misuse of law. “If ED follows the law, we have no problem, but it is not following the laws. This is a PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) offence trumped up as an offence in money laundering,” he said.
He said only after registering a case under the PMLA law, the investigations can start. His simple questions: “What is the scheduled offence. There is no answer. Which police agency has registered an FIR. Again no answer. We sought a copy of the FIR, there is no answer.”
“In absence of the scheduled offence, in absence of an FIR, where is the question of ED investigating under the PMLA? Obviously, they are not following the law. And in a democracy, we are, therefore, entitled to protest,” Chidambaram said.
He said the ED had similarly interrogated senior Congress leader and AICC treasurer Pawan Bansal, as the chairman of the Associated Journals, and Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge as a trustee in the Young India Limited in April, but no further steps were taken.
ED sources, however, say Chidambaram is wrong since their agency is acting only after it had registered a case against the Gandhi duo under the criminal provisions of the PMLA after a Delhi trial court took cognizance of an Income Tax probe against Young India. In December 2015, both Sonia and Rahul secured bail by furnishing personal bond of Rs 50,000 each and a surety after the court ruled out apprehension that they will flee the country.
“Political vendetta” charge is on the lips of all Congress leaders arrested for the second day on Tuesday. Chhattisgarh CM Baghel said the protests will continue so long as the Centre “perpetuates atrocities.” He challenged the BJP government at the Centre to show any action taken against the leader of any pro-BJP party in the last eight years, adding that the Central agencies rather dropped the cases against those quitting the opposition parties to join the BJP.
Baghel said the Congress had given a loan of Rs 90 crore to the Associated Journals to keep alive the National Herald newspaper as an institution and this cannot be termed as money laundering. “Not a single Rupee has been transacted. Only a business restructure was done and equity was floated to keep the historic newspaper alive,” he affirmed.
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot questioned the ED probe against the Gandhis and asked Prime Miniter Modi to stop this vendetta politics and rather focus on governance instead of targeting the opposition leaders. Both the chief ministers were among those detained.
Among the other leaders detained were Randeep Surjewala, Jairam Ramesh, Gaurav Gogoi, Deepender Singh Hooda, Ranjeet Ranjan, Jeby Mather, Imran Pratapgarhi, Youth Congress chief B V Srinivas and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) chief Neeraj Kundan, most of whom were also detained on Monday on the first day of the protest ‘satyagrah’.
