By Our Special Correspondent
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday in the National Herald newspaper money laundering case.
It was a day of strength for the party with street protests and arrests of leaders across the country. The questioning of the 75-year-old woman, who is recovering from Covid, lasted for about two hours and the session ended on her request, officials said.
An ED official said that she was initially summoned again on July 26 but postponed to July 25 on her insistence. Her statement will be recorded under PMLA as it was made on Thursday for just over two hours.
She answered about 27 of the top 28 questions on Thursday. After this, she told the authorities that she had to take medication at home due to her recent Covid recovery and the agency allowed her to finish the session for the day.
According to sources, when the Congress president was leaving, the ED asked her to depose on July 26, but Gandhi suggested that she come on July 25, which was agreed to by both sides.
The session was organized keeping in mind the Covid protocol; each participant had a Covid negative certificate.
Sonia Gandhi was questioned by the same assistant director-level inquiry officer who probed her son Rahul Gandhi in the case -- in connection with financial irregularities at the Congress-promoted Young Indian Pvt Ltd, which owns National Herald.
The summoning of the Congress president by a woman officer in the questioning team has become a political centerpiece in Parliament, where opposition leaders have raised the issue and staged massive protests on the streets with party workers.
As parts of central Delhi went into gridlock, Sonia Gandhi arrived at the Federal Probe Agency headquarters on AP J Abdul Kalam Road in Lutyens Delhi a little after noon in her Z+ category CRPF security cover.
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