‘Absolutely politically motivated’: State Minister Santosh Lad on ED chargesheet against Rahul, Sonia Gandhi in National Herald case

BENGALURU: State Minister Santosh Lad on Thursday launched a sharp attack on the BJP after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a prosecution complaint in the National Herald case against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Lad called the ED’s action “politically motivated” and said this was part of the BJP’s “old political game.”

“For the last 10 years, the ED was sleeping… It is absolutely a politically motivated case… This is their (BJP) old political game…” the Minister said.

Joining the criticism, Karnataka Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil accused the BJP-led central government of “looting” the country and pretending to be ‘doodh ka dhula’.

He alleged that the Centre was misusing government agencies to target Congress leaders.

#WATCH | Bengaluru, Karnataka | On ED chargesheet against Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in the National Herald case, Karnataka Minister Santosh Lad says, “For the last 10 years, the ED was sleeping… It is absolutely a politically motivated case… This is their (BJP) old… pic.twitter.com/hRQHrm89Uh

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Patil said, “The Modi government has a vindictive attitude against Congress to cover up their own corruption, price hike, maladministration, and failure in international policies. The image of India is going down in front of the world because of the improper foreign policy of the Modi government. That is why they target Congress leaders by misusing government agencies. Once opposition leaders join the BJP, they are exonerated of all the charges…”

“The Modi government collected thousands of crores, which the Supreme Court has struck down as electoral bonds… They are looting the country and posing as ‘doodh ka dhula’. We need to expose this dichotomy,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Union Minister and senior BJP leader Hardeep Singh Puri said the National Herald case is an open and shut case of fraud, corruption, and money laundering.

Addressing a press conference, Puri said, “I want to share with you my understanding of the National Herald case…This is an open and shut case of fraud, corruption and money laundering… Congress party has used their lawyers to somehow delay and derail the case…”

He also hit back at the Congress for claiming political vendetta and said the party should introspect instead of misleading its workers.

“When ED filed the chargesheet, Congress people started making statements that it is a political vendetta that we are using central agencies against them. I would like to advise them to introspect, as they are misleading the Congress party workers. The party workers must protest against their own leaders,” the BJP leader further said.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Harish Rawat said the ED’s chargesheet was an effort to “murder democracy.”

Speaking to ANI, Rawat claimed that the ED’s chargesheet is based on a plain lie.”It is an effort to murder democracy. Everyone knows the relationship between the National Herald and Congress, and this (ED’s chargesheet) is based on a plain lie… if anyone had any objection, a civil suit could have been filed, but involving ED is an effort to induce fear and malign the image of opposition leaders,” the former Uttarakhand CM said.

On Tuesday, the Enforcement Directorate filed a prosecution complaint (chargesheet) against Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and others, including Congress leaders Sam Pitroda, Suman Dubey, and several firms, in the National Herald money laundering case.

The matter has been listed for arguments on cognisance in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on April 25. The chargesheet 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 Act. (ANI)