Delhi police on Wednesday afternoon issued a diktat to the Congress to cancel its plan for a price-rise protest on August 5, and laid siege to the party headquarters and the official residences of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) too temporarily sealed the premises of holding firm Young Indian at the head office of the Congress-owned National Herald newspaper as part of a money-laundering investigation, official sources said.

Soon after the Delhi police letter was delivered to the Congress, a heavy police deployment with complete barricading of roads was made around 4pm outside the party office at 24 Akbar Road, Sonia’s residence at 10 Janpath and Rahul’s residence at 12 Tughlaq Lane.

This and the sealing of the Young Indian office triggered speculation about the possible arrest of Congress leaders.

The Congress held a news conference at 7pm to condemn the police action, forcing withdrawal of the heavy deployment.

An AICC functionary said that around 500 police and paramilitary personnel had circled the party headquarters and Sonia’s residence.

“But they are now going away; there probably is a change of plan,” the functionary said.

The police had refused to allow Congress leaders and workers to step out of the party headquarters on the days they had protested on the streets against the interrogation of Sonia and Rahul by the ED in the National Herald case. Even party MPs were not allowed to march from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Such restrictions on political activities have been rare. Political demonstrations and marches are almost banned in Delhi now.

“This (police action) was aimed at threatening us. This is politics of intimidation. This is being done by the Union home ministry,” Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said at the news conference.

“But we can’t be bullied like this. We are not scared of these tactics. Jo dhamki dete hain, woh darte hain (Those who threaten are themselves afraid). Those who intend to create fear are frightened themselves. Our agitation on the price rise, unemployment and imposition of GST on essential food items will continue.”

Congress general secretary Ajay Maken said: “A deputy commissioner of police wrote to us today that we cannot do any protests on August 5. And then they laid siege to our offices.

“The plan for August 5 was a gherao of the Prime Minister’s residence, starting from the AICC office. The MPs were expected to march from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan. In the states, demonstrations had to happen at all the Raj Bhavans. But this government resorted to threatening us, to creating panic.”

Maken added: “They want to control the narrative to ensure that issues like price rise and unemployment don't dominate the public discourse. They tried to create a false impression that the Congress was fighting on some other issue (the National Herald investigation).

“They want diversions and sensationalism to confuse the people. But our issues are the price rise and unemployment. No matter how much pressure they mount, what they do to intimidate us, we are going to carry out our agitation plan. We will never bend before this frustrated regime.”

Abhishek Singhvi, who was present at the briefing, said: “Barricades, platoons outside offices of a political party and the residences of our leaders. Nobody can come in, go out. Is this democracy?

“This is intended to humiliate, insult and intimidate. This is the worst form of petty politics. They don’t know that ‘fear’ is not a word in the dictionary of the Congress leadership. They are rattled that we are still standing up to their coercive politics. We will continue to do so.”

Sources said the temporary seal on the premises of Young Indian had been put in order to “preserve the evidence” that could not be collected as authorised representatives were not present during raids on Tuesday.

The rest of the National Herald office is open for use, they added. The newspaper is published by Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), and its holding company is Young Indian. The National Herald is registered in the name of AJL.

The notice pasted with the signature of the ED investigating officer said the Young Indian office cannot be opened “without prior permission” from the central agency.

Officials said the ED team had emailed the principal officer-in-charge of the Young Indian office to open the premises for the agency to carry out searches but a response was awaited.

Additional reporting by PTI