ED questioning of Sonia Gandhi: Congress leaders in Kerala march to Raj Bhavan

Congress leaders in Kerala on Wednesday marched to the Governor's residence, Raj Bhavan, here to protest against the continued questioning of party chief Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Department (ED) in the National Herald newspaper-linked money laundering case.

Senior Congress leaders, including Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan and former minister Ramesh Chennithala, who participated in the protest were subsequently arrested and removed from the area, police said.

An officer of Museum police station said all of the arrested Congress leaders were later released on station bail.

The leaders, in the afternoon, had marched to the Raj Bhavan and thereafter, had sat down in front of the barricades which prevented them from going further towards the Governor's residence.

Speaking to reporters there, the Congress leaders said the ED was being used as a political tool by the Centre to ''hunt'' Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Satheesan alleged that the attempt of the Centre by these actions was to destroy the Congress party and therefore, they have decided to invite arrest through their protest march to Raj Bhavan.

He said that despite answering the queries of ED, repeated attempts were being made to defame the Congress chief and Rahul Gandhi as part of the ''political agenda'' of the BJP government at the Centre.

Satheesan said there has been no instance of money laundering and despite several rounds of probes no one could find any wrongdoings. However, the Centre was continuing to target Sonia and Rahul Gandhi by using the ED as a ''political tool'', he alleged.

Rahul Gandhi was also questioned by the ED in this case last month in sessions that clocked over 50 hours across five days.

The questioning pertains to the charge of alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.

The move to question the Gandhis was initiated after the ED late last year registered a fresh case under criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

This was after a trial court here took cognisance of an Income Tax department probe against Young Indian based on a private criminal complaint by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are among the promoters and majority shareholders in Young Indian. Like her son, the Congress president too has 38 per cent shareholding.

Swamy had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds, with Young Indian paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that Associated Journals Limited (AJL) owed to the Congress.

In February last year, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Gandhis seeking their response on Swamy's plea.

The Congress 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.

According to the ED, assets worth about Rs 800 crore are ''owned'' by the AJL and the central agency 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.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)