ED summons to Sonia Gandhi: Cong leaders protesting outside probe agency's Nagpur office detained

A number of Congress workers were detained after they protested outside the Enforcement Directorate's office here on Thursday against its summons to party president Sonia Gandhi in a money laundering case.

A large number of Congress workers gathered outside the ED's office in the Seminary Hills area of Maharashtra's Nagpur city to express solidarity with Gandhi and raised slogans against the central government.

They also tried to barge into the ED office, but the police prevented them from doing so and detained them.

Senior Congress leader and former state minister Sunil Kedar, who led the protest, said, ''It is very unfortunate that a leader like Sonia Gandhiji has been being called by the ED. This is pathetic state of affairs in the country.'' Such protests will continue, he said.

Gandhi, 75, on Thursday, reached the ED's office in New Delhi for questioning in the National Herald money laundering case.

Congress has slammed the agency's action against its top leadership and called it ''political vendetta''.

Gandhi's statement will be recorded by the agency under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and it will be also be taped in an audio-video mode.

The probe relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.