Prime Minister, Home Minister should quit after court 'slap' in Herald case: Kharge

New Delhi: The Congress leadership on Wednesday said that after the "slap" of a Delhi court refusing to take cognisance of the ED charge sheet against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and the other accused in the alleged National Herald money laundering case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister should resign. Congress MPs also staged a protest outside the Parliament House on the issue and projected the court order as a victory for the Gandhis.

Yet, beyond these optics, many in the Opposition are cautiously watching the implications of the manoeuvre by which the National Herald case has now been deftly changed from being critically dependent on a private individual's (Subramanian Swamy) complaint to that of the arm of the state (Delhi Police FIR) and the possible future play, including fresh criminal clauses that could kick in the continuing investigation.

Addressing the press, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed the ED-probed case against the Gandhis was totally baseless and was the result of the Centre and BJP's "vendetta" politics. "This case was the outcome of political vendetta. It was mounted to harass the Gandhi family. After this judgement, Modi and Amit Shah should resign. This is a slap on their faces. Truth has prevailed. We welcome the judgement".


Abhishek Singhvi, who represents the Gandhis in the case, said, "The court order is a reminder that criminal law is not a political press release... You cannot weaponise PMLA and then plead ignorance of the conditions of PMLA itself. This case has always been long on rhetoric and short on legs."