Mallikarjun Kharge defends Gandhi family, calls National Herald case "political vendetta"

New Delhi [India], December 17 (ANI): Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday alleged that the National Herald case was being pursued with "political vendetta" by the ruling government, asserting that the matter was aimed solely at harassing the Gandhi family.
Addressing the media on the issue, Kharge said there was no basis to the allegations and claimed that no First Information Report (FIR) had been registered in the case.
"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.
The Congress chief's remarks come after a Delhi court on Tuesday 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.
Further, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal, who was also present at the press briefing, said they "would expose the vendetta politics to the streets of the country".
We will expose this vendetta politics to the streets of the country. The Congress party for the past seven years are facing this type of evasion from the ED and the senior leaders are facing these issues. Now the entire karyakarta are agitated and we are going to show triumph all over India."
"This is clearly an example of how ED is used by the Central government to target the opposition leader," he later added.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP and Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi started the press briefing and described the National Herald case as a false allegation orchestrated by the ruling party.
He called it a clear example of the "misuse of central investigative agencies".
Addressing the media, Singhvi said the allegations were made on baseless grounds and that the pressure of political power influenced the recent decision in the matter."The National Herald Case is proof of the misuse of central agencies. The allegations were made, but on baseless grounds and In this case, the pressure of power has had the ultimate impact on yesterday's decision. The accusations were floating in the air, but the law remained firmly on the ground," he asserted.
Singhvi highlighted that between 2021 and 2025, the Enforcement Directorate had conducted questioning sessions, including five hours for Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and three hours for Rahul Gandhi. He noted that these interrogations were widely reported on front pages across the country. (ANI)