Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Thursday informed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been undergoing interrogation with Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge for the last four and a half hours. Ramesh took to Twitter and also said that Kharge's ordeal is continuing and Congress party stands with him in solidarity.
Earlier in the day, Kharge presented himself before ED officials at the Herald House building in the national capital as the investigating agency resumed its raids at the office of Young Indian (YI), the holding company of Congress owned newspaper National Herald.
"Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, has been undergoing interrogation by the ED for the last four and a half hours. His ordeal is continuing. The entire Congress party stands with him in solidarity," Ramesh tweeted.
ED had summoned the 80-year-old Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha who reached the building at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg near ITO around 12:40 pm today. The probe agency sought Kharge's attendance during the raids at YI in his capacity of being the principal officer of the company.
Reacting to the development, Congress said that Kharge's summoning by Enforcement Directorate during the working hours of Parliament was an "insult" to the legislature and alleged that "Modishahi" is reaching a new low.
Speaking to reporters, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said that summoning of the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha by a probe agency during Parliamentary proceedings had never happened in the history of democracy.
"There is no such example in the history iof democracy. If they had to call Mallikarjun Kharge ji, they could have called him before 11 am or after 5 pm. The Question Hour was going on and before that Zero Hour was there and then ED is calling him to appear before it," Singh said.
According to reports, ED has also opened the office, which was temporarily sealed. On Wednesday, probe agency officials had seized the YI office saying no one was assisting them.
ED also said that they wrote two emails to Pawan Bansal and Mallikarjuna Kharge and requested them to be present at the time of search operations. Sources have also informed news agency IANS that the ongoing search operations can go on for hours.
"The searches at YI office which were on hold will be carried out now and any possible evidence available will be collected, officials told news agency PTI. On Tuesday, ED conducted multiple raids, including one at the Herald House, as part of its ongoing money laundering probe in the National Herald-AJL-Young Indian deal.
(With inputs from agencies.)