The Congress continued to protest for the second consecutive day against what it described as the tyrannical Narendra Modi government’s harassment of Opposition leaders without any legal basis as the Enforcement Directorate questioned Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.

Rahul left the ED office on Tuesday night and was told to appear again on Wednesday.

Questioning the basis of the entire process, Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram tweeted: “Will the learned spokespersons for the BJP please answer the following questions: 1. Which is the ‘scheduled offence’ under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) that has triggered an investigation by ED? 2. Which police agency has registered an FIR in respect of the scheduled offence?”

He added: “3. Where is the FIR? Will you please show us a copy of the FIR? 4. Did you know that absent a scheduled offence and absent an FIR, the ED has no jurisdiction to start an investigation under PMLA?”

The Congress has maintained from Day 1 that the money-laundering case cannot be made out when no transfer of money or assets has taken place.

Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala said: “No FIR has been registered so far because they know no crime has been committed. There was a private complaint by (MP) Subramanian Swamy. And the court has already ordered a stay on that complaint, which means even that is not in operation. Then what is the crime that has forced the ED to issue summons? The basis of summons has to be an FIR. They accuse us of giving a loan of Rs 90 crore; we accept upfront that we did give that loan. The entire investigation is illegal, driven by prejudice and political vendetta.”

Asking the ED to find out where from the money to buy MLAs and pull down Opposition governments come, Surjewala said: “There are many other genuine questions. Why is Rahul Gandhi being targeted? Is it because they are rattled by Rahul’s fearless attacks on the Modi government? Is it because Rahul confronted Modi for saying ‘nobody has entered’ when the Chinese forces occupied Indian territory?”

Surjewala added: “Is it because Rahul has cornered the government on prices of petrol-diesel and eatables? Is it because he raised questions of unemployment, corona mismanagement? Is it because he extended support to farmers’ movement, forcing the withdrawal of farm laws? Is it because he is fighting against their communal agenda? Is it because he has been exposing Modi’s plan to hand over national assets to crony capitalists?”

He rejected the government’s claim of fighting corruption by pointing out how corruption cases were closed against Congress leaders who joined the BJP and the lack of progress in investigations in cases related to BJP leaders.

Describing ED as the BJP’s “Election-management Department”, Surjewala said: “The ED has 5,422 cases, out of which 5,310 cases have been filed by the Modi government. That means 98 per cent cases are filed by the Modi government.”

He asked how details of the ED’s grilling, including questions and responses, were being reported by some TV channels.

“Let the WhatsApp messages being sent by the PMO to TV channel editors and owners be checked. They are getting regular feedback and instructions on what news should be shown. We dare the government to make the questioning live by allowing cameras inside. We are not scared.”

The police bandobast was far more elaborate on Tuesday and most Congress workers were prevented from reaching the party headquarters.

Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reached there in the morning before going to the ED office. Senior leaders, including Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, K.C. Venugopal, Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Chowdhury, were present there along with party workers who again wanted to accompany Rahul to the ED office.

The police didn’t allow anybody to move forward, forcing a sit-in on the road by Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and many senior leaders. Many leaders and members of Parliament, including Venugopal, Adhir, Deepender Hooda, Gourav Gogoi, Ranjeeta Ranjan and Imran Pratapgarhi, were lifted from the road and taken away in a bus.

This group was kept at Badarpur police station where Venugopal’s health deteriorated. A doctor who was called to the police station prescribed Venugopal some medicines and proper rest. The police agreed to free only the MPs on the condition that they would confine themselves to their homes. But Venugopal refused to leave unless everyone was allowed to go. The Congress leaders arranged food on their own.