ED’s chargesheet against Sonia, Rahul political witch-hunt: Gehlot

Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot today alleged that the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case was purely a political witch-hunt. “By targeting the Congress leadership and the Gandhi family through false and fabricated cases, the NDA government is trying to muzzle the party,” Gehlot said while addressing mediapersons in Shimla. He was accompanied by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, state Congress president Pratibha Singh and other senior Congress leaders.

Gehlot slammed the BJP for questioning the state government for giving advertisements to National Herald. “By that logic, why do the BJP-ruled state governments and the Central Government give advertisements to RSS-associated Panchjanya and Organsier or the BJP’s own Tarun Bharat. Government advertising in newspapers and TV channels is a common practice,” he said. National Herald had both online and offline presence, he added.

He claimed that the Gandhi family or other directors of Young India Limited did not get even one rupee. He alleged that the Central Government was using the ED for vendetta politics. He added that it was evident from the fact that the conviction rate of the ED was just one per cent, and 98 per cent of the political cases it had registered were against opposition leaders.

Gehlot claimed that the charges of money laundering were being made in a case where not even one rupee or asset had been transferred. “Debt is converted into equity to make the balance sheet debt free. It’s a common practice and legal. Where is laundering when there’s no money?” he asked.

Gehlot said chargesheeting the Congress leaders in the case was a direct assault on the very idea of democracy and the Opposition. “It is a crude attempt at political intimidation orchestrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah,” he added.

‘Young India not-for profit company’

• Ashok Gehlot said that Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which owns National Herald, was formed in 1937-38 to chronicle the freedom struggle
• Between 2002 and 2011, the Congress gave Rs 90 crore in small amounts to help the AJL pay its liabilities like salaries, VRS dues, etc. “To revive the company and the newspaper, the AJL was restructured and Young India, a charitable not-for-profit company, was formed in 2010
• As it is a non-profit company under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, it cannot give even one rupee in profit, dividend or salary to anyone,” former Rajasthan CM said