Manipur Congress members took out a protest rally in Imphal on Thursday, decrying the frequent summoning of national party president Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The rally led by Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president K Meghachandra started from its state party office at BT Road, Imphal.
State police personnel tried to stop the protest rally at the main gate of the party office, The protesters, however, overpowered the police personnel and headed towards Kangla Western gate.
The police again attempted to block the rally at the traffic island located in front of Kangla Western gate, as a result of which, a confrontation took place between police personnel and the protesters.
The police personnel finally brought the situation under control and the protesters were made to return to the state Congress office.
In front of the MPCC main gate, Meghachandra told mediapersons that MPCC strongly condemned the repeated summoning of national Congress party president Sonia Gandhi by ED in the National Herald case.
Meghachandra alleged that the present BJP-led government is misusing the ED as a weapon in order to get political mileage. Similarly, the government is also using CBI as their weapon in the political game, he added.
Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), no cases can be filed against a person who is getting a monetary loan from a bank, he said.
The present government is misusing the ED as a weapon to harass people, he maintained. There is no provision of taking up cases concerning the National Herald issue under the PMLA, he asserted.
Meghachandra said the protest was organised as a show of practicing ones’ democratic rights. MPCC strongly condemned the police action against the protesters, he added.
During the protest, slogans such as ‘we condemned repeated summons of Sonia Gandhi by ED’, ‘ down down BJP’, ‘Congress party jindabad’, ‘Narendra Modi Murdabad’, ‘stop political vendetta’ and others were raised.
