Hyderabad police detain TPCC Mahila Congress leaders during protest against BJP over National Herald case

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], December 18 (ANI): Police on Thursday detained several Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Mahila Congress leaders at the party headquarters, Gandhi Bhavan, in Hyderabad, when they staged a protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Telangana BJP headquarters over the National Herald case.
Hyderabad Police shifted them to a local police station near Gandhi Bhavan to prevent them from proceeding with the protest.
The protest was organised following the All India Congress Committee's (AICC) call for a nationwide agitation against the BJP, alleging political vendetta against senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi through Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases linked to the National Herald matter.
Meanwhile, TPCC President and MLC Mahesh Kumar Goud, during the protest, said that the court had clearly stated that the cases filed against the Gandhi family were baseless. "Now the court has come out clearly saying that the cases booked against the Gandhi family are baseless. The truth has come out. Prime Minister Modi must apologise for troubling the Gandhi family for the last ten years," he said to ANI.

Goud further alleged misuse of central agencies for political purposes. "Politically, they cannot face the Gandhi family, so in the name of ED and CBI, they are troubling them. The court has clarified that the case is null and void. Modi has to apologise," he added.
Citing data, the TPCC chief said that most ED cases involved opposition leaders. "Out of all the cases registered by the ED so far, 96.7 per cent are against the Opposition. This clearly shows that ED works under the BJP," Goud said.
Earlier today, a massive deployment of security personnel was reported at the Telangana Congress headquarters, Gandhi Bhavan, and at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Bhavan in Nampally, Hyderabad, ahead of a planned protest march.
TPCC President and MLC Mahesh Kumar Goud, along with other senior Congress leaders, participated in a protest march from Gandhi Bhavan to the Telangana BJP headquarters at Nampally today.
On Tuesday, the Delhi court declined to take cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate's prosecution complaint in the National Herald money-laundering case, holding that proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) are not maintainable in the absence of an FIR for the scheduled (predicate) offence.
The court stated that the ED's complaint against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Sam Pitroda, Suman Dubey, Young Indian, Dotex Merchandise Pvt Ltd and others was based on a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and the summoning order passed on it in 2014, and not on any FIR. It held that such a complaint cannot substitute the statutory requirement of an FIR under the PMLA framework. (ANI)