Congress delegation to meet President over police misbehaviour with MPs

A delegation of Congress leaders is likely to meet President Ram Nath Kovind on June 20 and submit a memorandum on the issue of entry of police into party headquarters and allegedly misbehaving with party MPs during protests against the Enforcement Directorate probe on party leader Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.

The Wayanad MP was questioned by the ED for three consecutive days, sparking protests by Congress leaders across the country.

Congress on Wednesday filed a complaint against the Delhi Police for entering and attacking party workers, without provocation, at 24 Akbar Road. The complaint was registered at Tughlak Road Police Station, New Delhi.

Congress has alleged that its leaders have been manhandled during protests.

According to sources, Enforcement Directorate on Thursday issued fresh summons to Rahul Gandhi to join the investigation in the National Herald case on Monday, granting his request to the agency to consider deferring his questioning from June 17 to June 20 citing his mother and party interim president Sonia Gandhi's health condition.

The ED had asked Gandhi to appear again on Friday (June 17), but he requested the officials to exempt him from appearing tomorrow and urged for a new date on Monday. The sources said that the ED officials are yet to respond to Gandhi's request but they are hopeful for their nod.

Gandhi appeared before the ED for the third consecutive day on Wednesday for questioning, when he left the ED office at 9 PM. The party, however, alleged that there was nothing in the case and it is a political vendetta.

Regarding his questioning by ED on Monday, as per official sources, the Congress leader, a Z+ category protectee of the Central Reserve Police Force after the Union government withdrew the Gandhi family's Special Protection Group cover in 2019, was confronted with several documents collated by the ED as evidence recovered so far in the case to get his version.

Rahul Gandhi was questioned in detail about the ownership of Young Indian Private Limited (YIL) by the Gandhi family and its shareholding pattern in Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the company that runs the National Herald newspaper, said sources.

Investigators in the ED, sources said, had also asked Rahul Gandhi to describe the circumstances under which AJL was acquired by YIL in 2010, making it the owner of all assets owned by the National Herald newspaper.

The National Herald, started by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was published by the AJL. In 2010, the AJL, which faced financial difficulties, was taken over by a newly-floated YIL with Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda as directors, both of them Gandhi loyalists.

In a complaint in the Delhi High Court, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy accused Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi, and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds.

Officials familiar with the probe said Rahul Gandhi is being asked questions about the takeover of the AJL by YIL since the Gandhis have stakes in the latter. The Congress leader is being questioned under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).