New Delhi [India], July 26 (ANI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with other party leaders was detained Tuesday by the Delhi Police after he led a protest against the questioning of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald case.

Terming the police action against him and his party cadres as an "order" by the "King of the country'", he tweeted, "The 'King' of the country has ordered - who will ask questions on unemployment, inflation, wrong GST, Agneepath - 'put him in jail'. Even though I am in custody now, even though it is a crime to raise the voice of the people in the country now, but they will never be able to break our spirits."

Rahul Gandhi was taken to Parliament Street police station after being detained during a protest march from Parliament to Vijay Chowk. Around 50 MPs along with Rahul Gandhi were detained from the North fountain near Parliament.

"All (Congress) MPs came here. They talked about inflation and unemployment. They (Police) are not allowing us to sit here. Discussions are not allowed inside (the Parliament) and here they are arresting us," said Rahul Gandhi before being detained.

He was released after six hours of detention.

All Congress MPs were stopped at Vijay Chowk and prevented from marching to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

"We're protesting as per the instruction of the police. All of this is a conspiracy by PM Modi & Amit Shah to completely destroy the Opposition and muzzle our voices. We won't be scared, our fight will continue," Congress leader and LoP Mallikarjun Kharge said.

Sonia Gandhi left the ED office here after around six hours of questioning. Sources said she has been asked to reappear Wednesday in the case.

The ED had earlier summoned Sonia Gandhi on June 1 to appear on June 8 in connection with alleged money laundering in the National Herald case.

Sonia Gandhi could not appear for questioning on June 8 after testing positive and being hospitalised for COVID-19. 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.

The case to investigate alleged financial irregularities under the PMLA was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

The petitioner had approached the court alleging that the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL), in which Sonia Gandhi and her son owned 38 per cent shares each.

The YIL promoters include Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis cheated and misappropriated funds, with YIL paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to Congress.

Congress argued that YIL is a not-for-profit company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 that can neither accumulate profits nor pay dividends to its shareholders.

The federal agency's move followed the questioning of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal in April this year.

The agency then recorded the statements of both the Congress leaders then under the PMLA. The National Herald is published by AJL and owned by YIL. While Kharge is the CEO of YIL, Bansal is the Managing Director of AJL.

The ED is investigating the shareholding pattern and financial transactions as well as role of party functionaries in the functioning of AJL and YIL. (ANI)

Source: National