Congress, BJP trade barbs
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and MP Rahul Gandhi for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper sparked an intense war of words between the opposition party and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
While Sonia Gandhi has been asked to appear before ED on June 8, Rahul was asked to appear on Thursday, according to a summons received on May 30. Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala and Abhishek Singhvi announced Sonia that will go to the ED office on the scheduled date but indicated that the party would seek time for Rahul after June 5 since he is out of the country.
Singhvi alleged that the ED had earlier closed the case, but new officials were brought into the agency to revive mater.
“Friends, this is a part of a larger disease. A disease, which will consume the ruling party ultimately. The disease is one of attacking every political party purely on vendetta terms from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Farooq Abdullah to DMK functionaries, from Gujarat to West Bengal, from Mevani to Mamata Banerjee and the family of Mamata Banerjee. The BJP has brought or tried to bring malafide every political opponent under the net of puppet agencies like ED, CBI, IT etc,” Singhvi said in a press conference.
BJP’s national president JP Nadda, rejected the Congress stand. “Have you ever seen a criminal say I’m criminal? They’ll of course deny it. Documents are proof. If charge sheet is filed, you’d approach court to get it quashed, but they sought bail. It means they’re guilty,” he tweeted.
The Gandhis had secured separate bails in the case in 2015.
The matter originated in a complaint filed by former MP Subramanian Swamy, who in 2012 alleged that the Gandhis misappropriated funds as proprietors of a company named Young Indian Private Limited, which eventually took control of Associated Journals Limited, the erstwhile publisher of National Herald. The allegation says the Congress had loaned ₹90.25 crore to AJL, which the latter could not pay.
Young Indian Limited, with a paid-up capital of ₹50 lakh, took over AJL in order for it to be able to meet its debt obligation, Swamy alleged. The ED and the Income Tax department opened investigations into the case after the BJP took over in 2014. In 2015, the Gandhis moved court and obtained bails.The Congress and the Gandhis have denied any wrongdoing.
While Singhvi described ED as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “favourite and pet weapon”, Surjewala claimed the summons were issued to divert attention from issues such as rising inflation.
Union minister Anurag Thakur, when asked about the Congress’s allegations during an unrelated press briefing on Wednesday, said it was only “government agencies doing their job.”