'No money-laundering involved': Gehlot calls the National Herald case 'baseless'

Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], April 16 (ANI): After the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a prosecution complaint against Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and others in the alleged National Herald case, Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said that the case being formed is completely "baseless" and that in "an already-done investigation into this matter, the ED never accused Rahul and Sonia Gandhi guilty of crime".
"The Enforcement Directorate had already investigated this matter earlier. The investigating officer gave a clean chit--neither Rahul Gandhi nor Sonia Gandhi were named as accused," Gehlot stated.
While explaining, the Congress leader remarked that the National Herald was introduced to encourage people to join the freedom movement. And that "the company (Young Indians) formed to handle the newspaper to revive it after it was not into publishing, was a non-profit firm itself", and hence, "no money-laundering could have been done under it".
"The world knows that even before India's independence, in 1938, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru started the National Herald newspaper. Nehru wanted to use it as a way to encourage people to join the freedom movement and to share messages of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and others through the Congress Party," Ashok Gehlot said.
"Many years later--around 50 to 60 years after the newspaper had stopped publishing--Congress decided to revive it. They gave a loan of about 90 crore rupees to Associated Journals Limited (AJL). Out of this, around 76 crores were spent on paying employee salaries. At that time, workers were earning between 8,000 to 15,000 rupees a month. Even the editor, Mr. Bhargava, wasn't receiving his salary regularly. So this money was used to clear dues and support staff. Another 20 crore rupees were spent on essential machinery," Ashok Gehlot added.
"Since AJL couldn't manage the revival, a company called Young Indian was created. It's a non-profit organisation--not meant for making profits or for any commercial use. So, where is the question of money laundering? No new money was involved in this process. But it's being portrayed as if a big scam took place. Now, properties in Mumbai, Delhi, and Lucknow are being 'attached', just like AICC's bank account was frozen before elections," he further added.
The former Rajasthan CM further alleged that "whether it's the CBI, ED, or Income Tax, officers are always being pressured to take up such cases" and that "this is nothing less than an attack on democracy".
Meanwhile, LoP in the Rajasthan assembly, Tika Ram Jully, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of misusing the national agencies for "political purposes" and said that "only the opposition is targeted by the ED and not the BJP".
"The BJP has been misusing national agencies for political purposes. Recently, when a question was raised about how many people had actually faced action by the ED, it was revealed that out of 196 people investigated, only 2 were fined."
He further added, "After the Surat court verdict, Rahul Gandhi was immediately disqualified from Parliament. And now, Robert Vadra is being summoned again and again. Just yesterday, the ED raided the house of Pratap Singh Khachariyawas. It clearly seems like an attempt to harass the opposition."
"Has the ED ever raided any BJP leader? In fact, one person accused of a scam worth Rs. 70,000 crores--someone the Prime Minister himself spoke against--was made Deputy Chief Minister within just seven days under the Modi government."
Jully alleged that "these investigations are meant to create fear and silence those who speak against the ruling party". (ANI)