NEW DELHI: Congress on Sunday rubbished the National Herald case as continued attempt by the prime minister-home minister duo to “intimidate and harass” the party because of “political vendetta”, as it said the fresh FIR on the issue is designed to fill gaps left by conjuring up of an offence in which there is neither money transaction nor property transfer to justify PMLA.Also read: BJP asks Cong to give account of its ‘loot’ in Herald caseParty MP and lawyer Abhishek Singhvi called the case as one in which “neither the wine is new, nor bottle new, nor glasses new”. He called it “one trick wonder of a case where no money moved, where no immovable property was transferred, yet money laundering was invented upon creation of Young Indian as not-for-profit company to merely hold share of AJL – which runs and holds brand National Herald and continues to hold all property as before and as always”.He said the grounds for money laundering were absent in the case, while the Gandhis and other Congress functionaries don’t get any dividends or perks. He said FIR has been filed with a minor change to plug a huge jurisdictional gap – that if there is no predicate offence, there cannot be a PMLA offence.
