Congress is holding a nationwide protest in front of Enforcement Directorate offices at state headquarters and in front of Central Government offices at district level against the central government.The party is holding these protests, after the investigative agency filed a prosecution complaint against Congress MPs Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Congress Overseas Chief Sam Pitroda in the alleged National Herald money laundering case. In the complaint filed on Tuesday, the agency has also named Suman Dubey and others. ED has filed a prosecution complaint in Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court under Sections 44 and 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, for the commission of the offence of money laundering, as defined under Section 3, read with Section 70, and punishable under Section 4 of the PMLA, 2002.
Congress Calls It Political Vendetta
Congress has called the ED move “political vendetta” and accused the government of misusing agencies ahead of elections.Talking about the party’s nationwide protest, Congress leader Udit Raj said, "We want to go to the public as no one is bigger than the public. We want the people to understand that a fake chargesheet has been registered against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, which is completely baseless and illegal."
BJP Hits Back
The ruling BJP has hit back at the Congress. Reacting to the party’s protests BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Congress party has the right to protest, but it does not have the right to misappropriate government properties and give it to the National Herald.“He added, “A corporate conspiracy was hatched in a very interesting way to get this entire property into the hands of the family... And what are these properties- one property on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in Delhi, properties in Mumbai, Lucknow, Bhopal, and Patna. Young India Limited was supposed to be a charitable organization, but till now, it is not known what charity it did... Writing off Rs 90 crores for Rs 50 lakhs and acquiring property worth thousands of crores."