E-Paper
‘PM Modi, Amit Shah should resign’: Mallikarjun Kharge after court relief to Rahul, Sonia Gandhi
A Delhi court declined to take cognisance of a charge sheet filed by the ED in the National Herald case naming Sonia and Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge launched a scathing attack at the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday morning and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah should “resign” after a Delhi court on Tuesday declined to take cognisance of a charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald case.
The charge sheet named senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
While addressing a press conference on Wednesday morning, Kharge said that the objective of the National Herald case is to harass the Gandhi family and that it was filed with political vendetta in mind.
“This decision of the court is a slap in the face to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. They should give a resignation stating that in the future they will not harass the people,” the Congress chief said.
Calling the National Herald case “false", Kharge said that it has been pursued with the spirit of “political revenge” and “malice”.
Also read: National Herald case: Court junks ED charge sheet against Gandhis
“This newspaper was started in 1938 by freedom fighters, which the BJP government is now trying to defame by linking it to things like money laundering,” he said.
“The truth is that there is nothing to this case, but even so, the BJP is trying to make it an issue to harass the leaders of the Congress party,” he added.
Kharge also reiterated the allegations that the current government is using ED cases to target opposition leaders for “political gain” but that with the court's recent decision, the “verdict has come in favour of justice”.
“Truth has triumphed. We heartily welcome this verdict,” he said.
What the court said in National Herald case
Refusing to take cognisance of a charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald case on Tuesday, a Delhi court said on Tuesday that it was impermissible in law to take judicial note of the charge sheet and summon the Gandhis.
It also said that the ED’s case reflected a unilateral overreach of the other law enforcement agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on one hand and “an ill-advised out-pacing of the scheme of the PMLA itself”.
“Since the present prosecution complaint pertaining to the offence of money laundering is founded on cognizance and summoning order upon a complainant under section 200 CrPC filed by a public person namely Dr. Subramanian Swamy and not upon a FIR, cognizance of the present complaint is impermissible in law,” said special judge Vishal Gogne of Rouse Avenue court.
