Detained Congress MPs Protesting Rahul Gandhi's Appearance Before ED Released After 11 Hours In Delhi

Top Congress leaders detained on Monday during the party's protest in solidarity with Rahul Gandhi, who was grilled by the ED in a money-laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper, were released from various police stations after almost 11 hours.

Sources said many Congress MPs who were detained for violating CrPC Section 144 were released around 11.30 pm soon after Rahul Gandhi left the Enforcement Directorate office after over 10 hours of questioning.

Why were they detained?

The Delhi Police on Monday detained 459 Congress workers and senior leaders, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K C Venugopal and Mallikarjun Kharge, for not following police directions for the maintenance of law and order in the national capital, officials said.

Hundreds of Congress workers in Delhi took to the streets and several senior leaders were detained amid a massive show of strength by the party which had called for a Satyagrah march against the ED's questioning of Rahul Gandhi.

What did the Congress leaders say?

The MPs who were detained for over 11 hour s include Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K C Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala and Harish Rawat.

The opposition party alleged that some of its leaders were manhandled by the police. It lashed out at the government for "not allowing" peaceful protests.

Taking to Twitter, senior Congress leader P Chidambaran said, "When three big, burly policemen crash into you, you are lucky to get away with a suspected hairline crack! Doctors have said that if there is a hairline crack, it will heal by itself in about 10 days. I am fine and I will go about my work tomorrow." 

Surjewala had earlier alleged that they were kept under "illegal" detention in violation of the law under the Narendra Modi regime. A video showed Chowdhury and Venugopal asking the police to either arrest them or release them immediately.

"We are Members of Parliament. How can you detain us? Arrest us. We are ready to go to the court," Venugopal was heard telling the police in the video.

Chowdhury told the police, "You cannot illegally detain us like this. Either arrest us or release us now."

Harish Rawat also put out a video saying they were not released from police detention and have to wait till Rahul Gandhi leaves the ED office. Soon after, the police opened the gates of the Tughlak Road police station, releasing around 10 MPs.

Congress whip in the Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore, in a tweet, said, "We were released at 11.45 pm from Mandir Marg Police Station. If Shah and gang think that they can silence the Congress then it's completely wrong. We will fight back. Our leader is Rahul Gandhi."
 

Why did ED summon Rahul Gandhi?

The ED issued summons to Rahul and Congress President and his mother Sonia Gandhi on June 1. Officials said ED wants to record their statements under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The National Herald newspaper was started by India's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938 from Lucknow. It was part of the independence movement against the British.Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published National Herald along with Qaumi Awaz in Urdu and Navjeevan in Hindi, did not belong to any one person but was founded in 1937 with 5,000 other freedom fighters as its shareholders, as per Business Standard. There were 1,057 shareholders in 2010. 

Subramanian Swamy in 2012 filed a complaint alleging some Congress leaders, including the Gandhis, were involved in cheating and breach of trust in the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) by Young Indian Ltd (YIL) in 2011, as per the Business Standard report.

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi owned 76 per cent of YIL and the remaining 24 per cent was owned by Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes.

AJL published the National Herald newspaper in English, Qaumi Awaz in Urdu, and Navjeevan in Hindi until 2008, when it was shut down after running into losses. 

The Congress party granted a Rs 90 crore interest-free loan to the AJL to help it, but it could not be revived, and AJL failed to repay the loan to the Congress, according to The Financial Express. 

In 2010, AJL declared the loan cannot be paid and transferred the loan to YIL. In lieu of it, AJL also issued its shares to YIL, giving YIL control of 99 per cent of AJL and its real estate assets, as per Rediff News. YIL paid a further consideration of Rs 50 lakh to AJL.

This meant, as per the complaint, that YIL ended up having the control of AJL and its real-estate assets for Rs 50 lakh on a Rs 90 lakh loan that Congress party wrote off. 

The real estate, pegged at around Rs 2,000 crore, owned by AJL in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, and Panchkula, is at the centre of the case.

By acquiring AJL, the Gandhis-owned YIL also acquired this real estate. The acquisition is controversial as they inherited such massive real estate in lieu of loan of 90 crore at a payment of Rs 50 lakh, as per Swamy's complaint. 

(With PTI Inputs)