BY S VENKAT NARAYAN  
Our Special Correspondent

 NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday questioned Congress Party Chief Sonia Gandhi in in a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper. The party’s workers and leaders held street protests across India and courted arrest.

 The questioning lasted for about two hours, and the session ended on her request, officials said. The ED has summoned her for a second round of questioning on July 25. The 75-year-old is recovering from COVID-19.The session was conducted keeping in mind COVID-19 protocol with everyone participating equipped with a Covid negative certificate.

 Sonia Gandhi was questioned by the same assistant director-level investigation officer who interrogated her son Rahul Gandhi. The case, filed by BJP MP Dr Subramanian Swamy in 2013, related to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress Party-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns National Herald.A woman officer was part of the questioning team The questioning of the Congress President took political centre stage in Parliament, where opposition leaders raised the issue, and on the streets with party workers staging massive protests.Sonia Gandhi wore a mask as she drove to the ED office in central Delhi, accompanied by her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

 Priyanka Gandhi was allowed to stay in the Pravartan Bhawan headquarters of the agency, away from the questioning room, so she could be with her mother in case of a health issue and give her medicines. However, Rahul Gandhi left soon after.The Congress chief had been summoned twice earlier but sought an exemption on grounds of Covid. Her statement was recorded by the agency under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

 The probe relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper. Rahul Gandhi was questioned by the agency in the case for over 50 hours in sessions spread across five days last month.The move to question the Gandhis was initiated after the ED late last year registered a fresh case under criminal provisions of the PMLA. This was after a trial court here took cognizance of an Income Tax department probe against Young Indian on the basis of a private criminal complaint by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.Ms. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and majority shareholders of Young Indian. Like her son, the Congress president too has 38% shareholding.

 Dr Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds, with YI paying only INR5 million to obtain the right to recover INR902.5 million that AJL owed to the Congress.The Congress party slammed the agency’s action against its top leadership and termed it “political vendetta.”

 “All Congress MPs and CWC members have courted mass arrest outside our party headquarters in a show of collective solidarity with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, a target of ‘Vishguru’s’ political vendetta,” said Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh. His party colleague Palaniappan Chidambaram said the ED is not higher than the Supreme Court. He asked: “What is that the ED wants to ‘investigate’ that will not be examined by the SC?”

 Other Opposition leaders voiced their protest too. Leaders of 13 political parties, including the DMK, Shiv Sena, RJD and the Left, met at Parliament House and issued a statement accusing the government of unleashing a “relentless campaign of vendetta against its political opponents and critics through the mischievous misuse of investigative agencies.” “Prominent leaders of a number of political parties have been deliberately targeted and subjected to harassment in an unprecedented manner,” the leaders said.

The issue echoed in Parliament, where the Congress and other Opposition parties sought to raise the issue.With tempers running high, Union minister Pralhad Joshi asked whether the Opposition party believes everyone is equal before the law or not. “Is she some ‘super human’ because she is the Congress President?” he asked.

 In February last year, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Gandhis for their response on Swamy’s plea. Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Bansal were questioned by the ED in the case in April.The Congress party has maintained that there has been no wrongdoing and Young Indian is a “not-for-profit” company established under section 25 of the Companies Act and hence there can be no question of money laundering.

 It is understood that Rahul Gandhi, during his deposition before the ED, stuck to the position that there was no personal acquisition of assets by himself or his family.According to the ED, assets worth about INR8 billion are “owned” by the AJL and it wants to know from the Gandhis how a not-for-profit company like Young Indian was undertaking commercial activities of renting out its land and building assets.