Photo credit: PTI
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday stepped up its attack on the BJP-led central government after a Delhi court declined to take cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate’s prosecution complaint in the National Herald money-laundering case. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the Modi government of misusing central agencies to harass Opposition leaders, particularly the Gandhi family. “They are doing this for political vendetta. This case is only to trouble the Gandhi family. There is no FIR in this case…Our slogan is ‘Satyamev Jayate’, and we welcome the judgment in the case…,” Kharge said. He added that the party would take the issue to the streets, alleging seven years of continuous harassment by the ED.
Kharge went further, saying, “PM Modi and Shah should resign after this judgment; they shouldn’t trouble people like this.”Congress general scretary K C Venugopal said the ruling had agitated party workers nationwide, adding that the Congress would demonstrate across India to expose what it called the “systematic misuse” of the ED to target Opposition leaders.Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi described the case as a textbook example of abuse of power. “The National Herald Case is proof of the misuse of central agencies. The allegations were made, but on baseless grounds… The accusations were floating in the air, but the law remained firmly on the ground,” he said. Singhvi noted that between 2021 and 2025, the ED conducted multiple questioning sessions of senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Kharge, which were widely publicised. Singhvi had earlier termed the matter a “National Harassment case”, rejecting allegations of money laundering against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others. He also accused the ED of being “colour blind”, saying, “If justice is blind, then ED is colour blind. It only sees one colour, the opposition colour.”The relief came after Special Judge Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Courts ruled that proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act were not maintainable in the absence of an FIR for a scheduled offence. The judge held that the ED’s complaint, based on a private complaint by Subramanian Swamy rather than an FIR, was “impermissible in law”.
