Patna (Bihar) [India], April 18 (ANI): Several Indian Youth Congress members blocked a railway track and halted train in Patna, Bihar, while protesting over the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s charge sheet against Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in the alleged National Herald case.
The protestors climbed the train deck and began chanting slogans of “ED-shahi nahi chalegi! (ED rule will not be tolerated!)”. Police officials entered the scene and walked the protestors away from the rail track, clearing the way.
On April 15, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a prosecution complaint (charge sheet) against top Congress members Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in connection with the National Herald money laundering case. The said charge sheet also names Congress leader Sam Pitroda, Suman Dubey and others, including several firms.
The matter has been listed for arguments on cognisance in the Delhi Rouse Avenue Court on April 25. The prosecution complaint has been filed under Sections 44 and 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, for the offence of money laundering, as defined under Section 3, read with Section 70, and punishable under Section 4 of the PMLA, 2002. The complaint was filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, their associated companies, and other individuals.
Several NDA leaders have been criticising the Congress party in response to the incident. Whereas, Congress members have been calling out the Modi-led government for the same.
Former Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Anurag Thakur took a jibe at the Congress on Friday amid the ongoing controversy in connection with the National Herald case, claiming that they had been “caught stealing again”. He said that some newspapers are published on paper, while others are only available online, and National Herald was one of the latter. Thakur stated that Congress “trembles” after hearing the name of the National Herald.
“Congress party time and again tries to launch and fails – I am talking about National Herald. The entire ecosystem of the Congress party began to feel the sensation of Kapkapahat after hearing the name National Herald, and it’s obvious because they have been caught stealing again. After independence, many scams done by Congress have come forward,” the minister said in a press conference.
On the other hand, on Wednesday, Congress leader Ashok Gehlot stated that the case being formed is completely “baseless” and that, in an already conducted investigation into this matter, the ED never accused Rahul and Sonia Gandhi of committing a crime.
“The Enforcement Directorate had already investigated this matter earlier. The investigating officer gave a clean chit–neither Rahul Gandhi nor Sonia Gandhi were named as accused,” Gehlot stated.
While explaining, the Congress leader remarked that the National Herald was introduced to encourage people to join the freedom movement. And that “the company (Young Indians) formed to handle the newspaper to revive it after it was not into publishing, was a non-profit firm itself”, and hence, “no money-laundering could have been done under it”. (ANI)
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed of ANI; only the image & headline may have been reworked by News Services Division of World News Network Inc Ltd and Palghar News and Pune News and World News
HINDI, MARATHI, GUJARATI, TAMIL, TELUGU, BENGALI, KANNADA, ORIYA, PUNJABI, URDU, MALAYALAM
For more details and packages
