New Delhi: Indian money laundering investigators questioned opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday as his supporters jostled with police outside the financial crime-fighting agency’s office in the capital, New Delhi.
The investigation by the Enforcement Directorate is linked to a nine-year old complaint by a member of parliament from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against Gandhi and his mother, Congress party President Sonia Gandhi.
A spokesman for the opposition Congress Party said the Gandhis and the party had done nothing illegal and the investigation was politically motivated.
“We will fight undeterred, we will fight fearlessly,” the Congress spokesman, Randeep Singh Surjewala, told reporters.
“We will answer every question.” A spokesman for the finance ministry’s Enforcement Directorate, which investigates money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws, was not available for comment.
Police blocked off some parts New Delhi with barricades as Gandhi, along with Congress leaders and party workers, attempted to march to the directorate’s offices for the questioning.
Gandhi was questioned for about three hours, another Congress official said, adding that police had detained scores of party supporters outside.
The BJP lawmaker behind the complaint, Subramanian Swamy, accused the Gandhis of forming a shell company and illegally gaining control of property worth $300 million.
The assets had belonged to a firm that published the National Herald newspaper, founded in 1937 by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was Rahul Gandhi’s great grandfather.
Protests in many parts of country
The Congress party on Monday staged protests in Hyderabad, Karnataka and Bihar against the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate to party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.
Traffic was thrown out of gear in the core city area of Hyderabad as hundreds of party leaders marched to the regional ED office at Basheerbagh.
The massive rally led by the party’s state President A. Revanth Reddy began from Necklace Road on the banks of Hussain Sagar.
Chandy video goes viral
The video of 78-year-old two-time former Chief Minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy leading the sloganeering in Delhi on Monday supporting Rahul Gandhi has gone viral.
Chandy has a serious throat ailment, yet it did not deter him from leading the protests in support of Gandhi in front of the AICC office in Delhi.
The veteran legislator is all set to enter the record books of the Kerala Legislative Assembly in October when he will beat the record of late K.M. Mani who was a legislator for 52 years.
In the video, Chandy is seen in the company of Lok Sabha members Adoor Prakash, Kodikunnil Suresh, Benny Behanan and Rajya Sabha member Jeby Mether, who are repeating the slogans of Chandy.
