Not Allowed To Meet Detained Cong MPs: Gehlot, Baghel

| Updated: 14 June, 2022 9:09 pm IST

KC Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, Deepender Singh Hooda, Ranjeet Ranjan, Imran Pratapgarhi, Dr Vineet Punia and other Congress leaders have been taken to police custody

NEW DELHI: Even as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a second consecutive day, the grand old party leaders alleged that they were not allowed to meet the leaders who have been detained by the Delhi Police.

Earlier in the day, several Congress leaders met at party headquarters to decide to meet the party leaders who were detained by Delhi Police for trying to reach the ED headquarters. The meeting was chaired by senior party leader Mukul Wasnik.

After the meeting, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel left for different Police stations in Delhi. However, they were stopped to meet the detained party leaders.

“(Naturam) Godse’s descendants are very cowardly. Mukul Wasnik ji and I have been stopped in front of Apollo Hospital in Delhi. We are going to meet our Congress workers lodged at Badarpur police station. Our workers are ‘Babbar Sher’. They are fighting for the truth. This battle will be fought,” Baghel tweeted.

He also attached a video of his vehicle cavalcade being stopped by the Police.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera also took to twitter and wrote, “Ashok Gehlot along with Rajiv Shukla, Nasir Hussain, Nadeem Javed went to meet Congress leaders workers detained by the Delhi Police and lodged at Mandir Marg PS. But the police did not allow him to meet Congress workers.”

The Delhi Police detained Congress MPs KC Venugopal, Manickam Tagore, Randeep Singh Surjewala, PL Punia and several others in the morning when they tried to march towards the ED office from the party headquarters here.

On Monday, several party MPs alleged manhandling by the Delhi Police. Former Union Minister P Chidamabaram also said that he had received a hairline fracture in his ribs during the Monday Satyagrah March to the ED office along with Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi is being questioned by the ED in connection with the National Herald case.

The ED registered a fresh case about nine months ago after a trial court in Delhi took cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe carried out based on a private criminal complaint filed by former BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, in 2013.

Swamy claimed that Young Indian Limited (YIL) “took over” the assets of the defunct print media outlet in a “malicious” manner to gain profit and assets worth over Rs 2,000 crore. The BJP leader also alleged that YIL had paid Rs 50 lakh to obtain the rights to recover Rs 90.25 crore which AJL owed the Congress party.