Cong Protests Sonia Gandhi's ED Questioning: Vehicles Ablaze, Rail Lines Blocked

The senior Congress leaders were detained for protesting the ED's questioning of Gandhi in the National Herald case.

While Congress workers stopped a train and blocked railway tracks at Shivaji Bridge railway station in Delhi, clashes with the police were reported elsewhere.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Several senior Congress leaders were detained in Delhi on Thursday, 21 July, as they protested the Enforcement Directorate's questioning of Sonia Gandhi in the National Herald case.

The demonstrations spread to other states, including Karnataka, Chennai, Odisha, Telangana, and Punjab. While water cannons were deployed by the police to disperse the protesters in Delhi and Chandigarh, demonstrators in Hyderabad torched a two-wheeler near the ED office there.

Further, Congress workers burnt a car in Bengaluru besides stopping a train and blocking railway tracks at Shivaji Bridge railway station in Delhi, news agency ANI reported.

Shashi Tharoor, Ashok Gehlot, P Chidambaram, Ajay Maken, and Sachin Pilot were detained by the police in Delhi as they staged protests against the summons to the party chief. As per news agency ANI, 75 Congress leaders have been detained.

Congress MPs holding banner and placards stage a protest march at Parliament House complex to express their solidarity with the party Chief Sonia Gandhi.

Congress Seva Dal members gather at the AICC headquarters to express their solidarity with the party President Sonia Gandhi.

Congress Mahila Morcha members shout slogans as they gather at the AICC headquarters to express their solidarity with the party President Sonia Gandhi.

Congress workers in Mumbai protesting to express their solidarity with interim party chief Sonia Gandhi.

Police personnel attempt to stop Congress workers during a nationwide protest against summoning of party interim President Sonia Gandhi by ED in National Herald case, in Bhubaneswar.

Tamil Nadu Congress President K. S. Alagiri with Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader K Selvaperunthagai and others shouts slogans during their protest to express their solidarity with party's interim President Sonia Gandhi.

The leaders were taken to Utsav Sadan in Kingsway Camp police lines, as per Chidambaram. "We are all seated in a large hall called Party Hall! It is past 2 pm. Apparently, Mrs Sonia Gandhi is still being interrogated. I wonder why? I think we have been 'detained', not 'arrested'. That is a distinction which will make sense only to the police and lawyers!" he wrote on Twitter.

"Democracy and Truth always go together. Solidarity with all my INC colleagues in detention," tweeted Tharoor.

"There is misuse of agencies in the country... it's our right to protest in a democracy, but it is also being crushed upon...," Gehlot was quoted as saying by news agency ANI, as he was taken into a police bus.

"All Congress MPs and CWC Members have courted mass arrest outside our Party HQs in a show of collective solidarity with Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi, a target of Vishguru's political vendetta. We are being taken away to a police station in Old Delhi evidently," Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh tweeted.

Party workers and leaders held demonstrations carrying placards and raising slogans at the Congress headquarters.

The Opposition party has also criticised the ED action as "political vendetta."

Similar protests had been held when Gandhi's son and former party President Rahul Gandhi was quizzed by the ED in the same case in June. Rahul Gandhi had appeared before the investigation agency for five rounds of questioning.

Congress Workers Detained in Nagpur, Clash With Police in Guwahati

Amid nationwide protests over the ED's questioning of Sonia Gandhi, Congress workers in Nagpur were also detained as they staged demonstrations.

In Assam's capital city Guwahati, a clash broke out between the police and Congress workers amid the protests.

Protests were also held by the Congress states units in Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.