New Delhi: As Congress leader Rahul Gandhi appeared before the Enforcement Directorate for the third consecutive day of questioning in the National Herald case, Congress accused Delhi Police of acting like the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “private militia” by storming into the party’s headquarters and beating up workers outside it.
Several Congress leaders and workers outside the ED office and the Akbar Road party headquarters were rounded up by the police and bundled into DTC and Delhi Police buses.
The party has claimed that several Youth Congress and Mahila Congress workers, including IYC chief B.V. Srinivas and Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary, protesting outside the Congress office on Akbar Road were also roughed up by the police and paramilitary forces and forcibly taken away.
@DelhiPolice behaving like the private militia of the @BJP4India by entering the HQ of the @INCIndia pic.twitter.com/nAeb4320dr
— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) June 15, 2022
A video tweeted by MP Karti Chidambaram shows police and security forces entering the offices and dragging out a particular man. This video was also tweeted by Congress’s official handle. The account has also tweeted photos and videos of party workers facing off with police in various locations in protest against Gandhi’s ED appearances.
The party demanded that an FIR for “criminal trespass” be registered, erring police personnel be suspended and disciplinary action initiated against them.
“In an act of absolute goondaism perpetuated by the Delhi Police at the instance of the Modi government, the police today forcibly entered the national headquarters of the Congress here and beat up party workers and leaders. This is patently criminal trespass. The goondaism of Delhi Police and Modi government has reached its zenith,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.
Surjewala said that the protests had been peaceful and were still stifled by the police.
“Tomorrow, the Congress has decided to gherao all Raj Bhawans across India in protest against this action of the police, and the designed deception and suppression of the voice of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party, who continue to champion the voice of the poor, the downtrodden and common people,” Surjewala said.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel told reporters outside the Congress headquarters that the government was “murdering democracy” as party workers and office bearers were not being allowed to enter the AICC premises by the police.
“Our workers are being beaten up mercilessly,” Baghel said.
Delhi Pradesh Congress workers also staged a protest outside the heavily barricaded ED office.
Congress MPs Manickam Tagore, Thirunavakkarasuar, A Chella Kumar, Amar Singh and Jayakumar Vijay Vasanth, meanwhile, protested in the Parliament complex and raised slogans against the government.
Tagore said they had come to the Parliament complex as they were not allowed to enter the AICC office by the police.
Congress leaders said this was the first time in the country that party workers were not allowed to enter the AICC office.
Tagore said the police were acting as “BJP agents.” “The MPs wanted to protest near the Mahatma Gandhi statue against the torture and questioning of Rahul Gandhi by the ED in a false case,” he added.
“What is happening in the country. Have we become a Banana Republic? Is this democracy? The Constitution is being violated,” senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.
Accusing the police of high-handedness, the Congress Lok Sabha leader said police would have caused havoc at the AICC office had the media not been there.
Prohibitory orders have been imposed in central Delhi since Monday, banning the assembly of more four or more people.
Rahul Gandhi has clocked over 21 hours in multiple question and answer sessions over the last two days at the ED office. He left at 11:30 pm on Tuesday night after being questioned for over 11 hours on day two.
About 15-16 questions about the incorporation of the Young Indian company, the operations of the National Herald newspaper, the loan given by the Congress to the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and the funds transfer within the news media establishment have been put to Gandhi during the questioning held till now, PTI reported, quoting unnamed sources.
The probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper. The newspaper is published by the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and owned by Young Indian Private Limited. Rahul Gandhi’s mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is currently admitted to a hospital due to COVID-related issues, has also been summoned by the agency for questioning in the case on June 23.
(With PTI inputs)