NEW DELHI:
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday searched multiple locations in connection with the National Herald case, days after the agency recorded the statements of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi.
The searches triggered a protest by the Congress workers outside the National Herald headquarters in Delhi.
Reacting to the raids, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted: “The raids on Herald House, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg are a part of the continued attack against India’s principal opposition – Indian National Congress. We strongly condemn this vendetta politics against those who speak up against the Modi Govt. You cannot silence us!”
Explained | What is the National Herald case and why has the ED summoned Sonia and Rahul Gandhi?
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that an attempt was being made to create an “atmosphere of fear”. However, he said, the Congress workers would not be deterred by such measures. Congress MP Karti Chidambaram claimed that the ED had become a “weapon of mass destruction” and would be known as the “hatchet agency” of the government.
At a Congress press conference, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that the raid on National Herald was a ploy to divert attention from price rise and unemployment.
“In Independent India, there is perhaps no other governmental and no other place, where politics has sunk to this rock bottom. To settle petty personal scores, to intimidate India’s Opposition, the Modi government is doing exactly what the British did during the freedom struggle. During the freedom struggle, the British had banned and had raided National Herald, that’s exactly what the Modi government is doing,” Ms. Shrinate said.
The ED’s money laundering probe is related to a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in the court alleging that Young Indian paid only ₹50 lakh to acquire the rights to recover a ₹90.25-crore debt that the Associated Journals Limited owed to the Congress. Ms. Gandhi and her son owned 38% shares each in the not-for-profit company, Young Indian.
