Cong plans protests over ‘vendetta politics’ after court junks ED’s Herald case

NEW new delhi: The u.s. Congress on wed said the company workers would carry pan-India protests to expose “vendetta politics” of the Narendra Modi government, citing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) action in the National Herald case.The move comes a day after a Delhi court ruled that it was impermissible, in law, to take judicial notice of the charge sheet since the prosecution complaint was founded on cognisance of a private complainant and not an FIR in a predicate offence.“The case over National Herald is nothing but a political vendetta. This newspaper doesn’t belong to today. It started in 1938. They are using agencies to defame Congress leaders and the Gandhi family,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said at a Press conference at his residence.“These are unfounded cases to harass us. They also used agencies against those who opposed them or to force leaders and MPs to join them. (PM) Modi and (Union home minister Amit) Shah should resign, as it is almost like a slap on their face. And they must realise that in future, if they try to do such things, people will teach them a lesson. We are fighting them politically. We are fighting from the sadak (streets) to sadan (Parliament),“ Kharge said.Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said party workers would hold protests and demonstrations across the country.“We will expose this political vendetta on the streets of the country,” he said, asserting that the Congress and its senior leadership had been facing continuous harassment by the ED for the past seven years.“We will take it to the streets of this country. We are going to take this all over India because this is a clear misuse of power,” Venugopal added.To be sure, ED officials have underlined that the agency would challenge the Delhi court order. In its charge sheet in April, ED alleged that Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi illegally obtained the underlying assets of Associates Journals Limited (AJL), which ran the National Herald newspaper, and acquired crores as direct proceeds of crime. TCongress lawmaker Abhishek Singhvi, who was also the lawyer for the Congress and the Gandhis in the case, said that while the case started on a complaint by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the ED wrote in their files between 2014 and 2021 that there were no predicate offences.“Why no FIR was lodged for 7 years. After that, on June 30, 2021, an FIR was lodged. Is this not political vindictiveness? Remember under PMLA, only agencies could file FIR, but they didn’t. Its basis has to be a predicate offence. But there was no predicate offence. They tried to make a political case out of this. They investigated without an FIR. Naturally, the court asked, why did you file a new FIR now?” Singhvi said.Singhvi argued that there are two conditions for an offence under the PMLA: the transfer of cash or the transfer of immovable property. But Young Indian’s rules were clear: Kharge or the Gandhis cannot take anything.“Today, the law has spoken louder than noise and facts. You made a money laundering mansion on quicksand without an FIR. This story is of vendetta, harassment,” he added.