Modi govt's politics of vendetta exposed Cong

Chandigarh, Dec 19 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Friday said the dismissal of the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) case against party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi by a special MP/MLA court has exposed what he termed the Modi government's "politics of vendetta".
     Surjewala said the court on December 16, rejected the ED case, giving a strong reply to what he described as a "politically motivated action".
     He alleged that the ED was used as a tool to target Congress leaders for political reasons.
     He told media here the case against Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi had no legal basis and was driven by political revenge.
     According to Surjewala, the BJP government has, over the past 11 years, misused central agencies to harass opposition leaders.
     He cited court observations noting that the ED started a money-laundering probe in 2021 after changing its earlier stand in the National Herald matter.
     Surjewala said the court pointed out that neither the CBI nor the ED had registered any case against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi between 2014 and 2021 as no criminal offence was found.
     He said the court also observed that the CBI had refused to register an FIR in the case despite complaints, and that the ED could not legally file a money-laundering case in the absence of any FIR.
     The court, he added, also held that the complaint itself was not maintainable and refused to take cognisance of it.
     Explaining the Congress position on the National Herald case, Surjewala said the newspaper was founded in 1937 by Jawaharlal Nehru and is owned by Associated Journals Limited (AJL), a not-for-profit company run in public interest.
     He rejected claims that AJL owns assets worth Rs 5,000 crore, saying it owns only one property in Lucknow and has leased properties in five other cities.
     He said the Congress had paid about Rs 90 crore in instalments to clear the newspaper's liabilities, and as the loan could not be repaid, a not-for-profit company, Young Indian Limited, took over the loan on legal advice.
     He added that Young Indian cannot distribute any profit or dividend to its shareholders.
     Surjewala said the court has now dismissed the ED case in its entirety, adding that "truth has prevailed".

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)