ED quizzes Sonia Gandhi for 2 hours

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday questioned Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper. The day was a show of strength for the party with street protests and leaders courting arrest across the country.

The questioning of the 75-year-old, who is recovering from Covid, lasted for about two hours and the session ended on her request, officials said. An ED official said she was initially summoned again on July 26 but this was advanced to July 25 at her insistence. Her statement will be recorded under the PMLA like it was done for just over two hours on Thursday. She replied to about 27 top 28 questions on Thursday. Following this, she told the officials that she needs to take her medicines at home owing to her recent Covid recovery and the agency allowed ending the day's session. According to sources, while the Congress president was leaving, the ED asked her to depose on July 26 but Gandhi suggested that she can come on July 25, to which both sides agreed

The session was conducted keeping in mind Covid protocol with everyone participating equipped with a Covid negative certificate. Sonia Gandhi was questioned by the same assistant director-level investigation officer who interrogated her son Rahul Gandhi in the case -- related to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns National Herald. A woman officer was part of the questioning team

The summons to the Congress president took political centrestage in Parliament, where opposition leaders raised the issue, and on the streets with party workers staging massive protests.

As parts of central Delhi went into gridlock, Sonia Gandhi reached the federal probe agency's headquarters in Lutyens Delhi's A P J Abdul Kalam Road a little after noon escorted by her Z+ category CRPF security cover.