New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for questioning for the fourth time Friday, officials said. Rahul Gandhi was interrogated for the third time Wednesday in the National Herald money laundering case. Officials said the Congress MP sought exemption for Thursday which was allowed.
Rahul’s questioning Wednesday, which has already run for more than eight hours, is expected to end soon.
Rahul arrived at the ED headquarters on APJ Abdul Kalam Road in central Delhi around 11.35am with his ‘Z+’ category CRPF security escort. He was accompanied by his sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Meanwhile in a separate development, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury sought Wednesday the intervention of Speaker Om Birla over the questioning of Rahul by the ED for hours. Chowdhury alleged that ‘inhuman treatment’ with a Member of Parliament smacks of ‘heinous conspiracy’ to settle a political score.
Also read: Amid protests, Rahul Gandhi appears before ED in National Herald case
In a letter to Birla, Chowdhury said, “With heavy heart I along with my colleagues have been expressing grievances to you that our esteemed colleague Rahul Gandhi ji, has been undergoing inexplicable tormentation (sic) for consecutive three days by Enforcement Directorate of India in Delhi, he has been grilled on an average 10 to 11 hours per day on the pretext of examination on some wild allegations. This kind of inhuman treatment with a Member of Parliament smacks of heinous conspiracy to settle political score.”
Chowdhury added: “We all regard you as our custodian and hence seek your intervention into the humiliation being meted out to Rahul Gandhi.”
Top Congress leaders have been protesting and courting arrest in solidarity with Rahul for the last three days as he has been appearing for questioning before the ED.
The case pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper. The newspaper is published by the AJL and owned by Young Indian Private Limited.