The Congress on Tuesday claimed the "illegality" of the Narendra Modi government and its "politically motivated prosecution stands fully exposed" after a court here refused to take cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate chargesheet in the National Herald money laundering case against Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and others.
In a statement, the Congress said the ED's proceedings against Congress leadership — Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi — in the case have been found to be "completely illegal and mala fide" by the court.
"The mala fide and illegality of the Modi government stand fully exposed. The court has ruled that the ED case is without jurisdiction; it has no FIR, without which there is no case. This politically motivated prosecution by the Modi government over the last decade of the principal opposition party stands exposed before the people of India," the opposition party said.
"No case of money laundering, no proceeds of crime and no movement of property; all baseless charges that have been a part of a political witch hunt, propaganda, reputation assassination and campaign which stands defeated today," it said.
The party asserted that it and the leadership were committed to fighting for the truth and for the rights of every Indian. "We cannot, and will not ever be intimidated, because we fight for the truth," the statement added.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge reminded people that when false allegations were levelled to defame the National Herald, the party and its leaders, then too he had said that "if we didn’t fear the British, what are these BJP-RSS or Modi-Shah worth?" "Today, the court too has declared the Modi government’s actions illegal and foiled this conspiracy hatched with the malicious intent of political revenge. No matter how much force this 'vote-chor government' deploys to crush democracy, we will continue our fight for 1.4 billion Indians and to save this Constitution. The victory of truth is certain," Kharge said in a post on X.
Party general secretary K C Venugopal said, "Through this judgment, the court has exposed the illegal and mala fide political targeting by the Narendra Modi government." "From day one, the opposition, especially Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, has been targeted without any legal basis or wrongdoing. This judgment clearly vindicates our stand," he told reporters.
In a post on X, he later said that time and time again, "the BJP-controlled ED has tried its best to frame the Congress leadership in the totally bogus National Herald case. Today’s verdict of the Court declaring that the entire case is without jurisdiction, without FIR, and as such without basis, proves that this was purely driven by political vendetta".
"It is a tight slap on the face of all those who repeatedly try to besmirch Sonia Gandhi ji and Rahul Gandhi ji through this frivolous case. This verdict today should come as a clear message to the vendetta-driven investigation agencies, including ED, who will go to any extent to appease their masters with malicious cases," Venugopal said.
Congress senior spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi, who is also an advocate, said he had told the court that this is a "very weird case" where there is not a millimetre movement of money or of immovable property.
"The judgment is significant because cognisance is the lowest form of dealing with a case. It is very easy to take cognisance of a case. It (the court's decision) means the case is not worth taking cognisance of. And here you see the amount of halla gulla and shor (brouhaha) that the BJP has done to make a superstructure of exaggeration," he said.
Later, addressing a joint press conference, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera and Mohammed Khan said the truth has prevailed, and truth will always prevail.
The "conspiratorial FIR orchestrated by the BJP in the National Herald case, born out of the Modi-Shah political vendetta", has been quashed by the Court, they said.
Khera alleged that the case was blatantly politically motivated, driven by the BJP government’s mounting frustration over the Congress consistently exposing its failures.
"As the 'vote chori' of the BJP government was exposed by Rahul Gandhi, the BJP government and its agencies, including the ED, have run out of fresh smears. When facts ran thin, theatrics stepped in, selective prosecutions, recycled allegations, and a thinly veiled attempt to keep political opponents perpetually in the dock," their statement said.
By quashing the FIR in the case, the judiciary has delivered a decisive rebuke to the BJP’s politics of persecution, exposing its political vendetta and its mindless attempts to hound the opposition, Khera said.
The quashing of the FIR clearly demonstrates that the BJP's politics is rooted in vendetta, intimidation, persecution, and fear-mongering, carried out at the behest of those with a criminal mentality, he said.
"The 50-hour questioning over five consecutive days was nothing but a state-sponsored political witch-hunt, which the Congress confronted head-on. With the FIR now quashed, it stands proven once again that truth has prevailed, and truth will always prevail," Khera said.
Refusing to take cognisance of the federal probe agency's money laundering charge against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and five others in the National Herald case, the court noted that the chargesheet filed is based on a probe into a complaint by a private person and not on an FIR of a predicate offence.
The ED said it would file an appeal against the court order.
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