NEW DELHI: The BJP on Monday fielded Union minister Smriti Irani to hit out at the Congress in the National Herald case. It accused the Congress of holding the ED to ransom to protect the Gandhis by creating a “political chaos” through a protest.
“Never before was such a blatant attempt made by a political family to hold an investigation to ransom into a mega corruption case. It has been done to protect the ill-gotten assets worth `2,000 crore for which Rahul Gandhi has been summoned,” Irani said.
Irani alleged that the protests were engineered by the Congress as part of a strategy to exert pressure on the investigating agency. “Shockingly as well as shamefully, it was aimed at supporting corruption. But nobody is above law”, she said, asking Rahul Gandhi to explain his family’s ties to the Dotex Merchandise Company.
She described Dotex Merchandise as a hawala operator, whose transactions were flagged by the Financial Intelligence Unit. “The nation wants to know from Rahul Gandhi about his family’s relation with the Dotex Merchandise. The Gandhi family had floated the Young India purportedly to grab the assets, worth `2000 crore, of Associated Journals Limited, which publishes the National Herald,” she said.
Quoting details, the minister said over 5,000 freedom fighters had shares in the newspaper when it started out. She alleged that Young India was formed with an aim devoted to charity in 2010. “But it admitted in 2016 that not a single charity work was conducted by it... It served not society but the Gandhi family,” Irani said.