Congress delegation to meet LS Speaker over 'attack' on party MPs by Delhi Police during protest
Jun 16, 2022
New Delhi [India], June 16 : A delegation of Congress MPs will meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday over the treatment meted out to the party's legislators by the Delhi Police amid their protest over the Enforcement Directorate probe against the party leader Rahul Gandhi.
The delegation will be led by the Leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Prior to meeting Birla, the Congress MPs will hold a meeting at the Congress Parliamentary Party office to discuss the issue.
Further, Senior Congress leaders, general secretaries and AICC in-charges will meet at party headquarters today to discuss future strategies over the current political situation.
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.
A delegation of senior Congress leaders including Avinash Pande, Harish Choudhary, Pranav Jha and Challa Vamshi Reddy met with the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and Station House Officer (SHO).
The senior leaders presented a detailed written complaint highlighting "the brazen and illegal actions of officials of the Delhi police in entering and attacking workers of the INC, without provocation," at 24 Akbar Road during a conference held on Wednesday.
Senior Congress leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, KC Venugopal and others were detained by Delhi Police and taken to Tughlak Road police station on Tuesday while they were protesting over Enforcement Directorate's (ED) probe against party leader Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.
The leaders were protesting outside Congress headquarters, Akbar Road in the national capital
The leaders detained by Delhi Police include Gaurav Gogoi, Deepender Singh Hooda, Ranjeet Ranjan, Imran Pratapgarhi and others.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has been asked to rejoin the probe on Friday by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the National Herald case, said sources.
The Congress leader left the ED office after 9 pm on Wednesday.
The former Congress chief appeared before the ED for the third consecutive day on Wednesday for questioning.
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, have 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.
