New Delhi, June 21 (Bureau) Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Tuesday said the Enforcement Directorate probe of Rahul Gandhi is being stretched to distract attention from the “spontaneous protests” against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme among other issues. Addressing a press conference here, Singhvi, a senior advocate said while party is not against the financial probe agency discharging its duty in the National Herald case, the questioning of over “40 hours'” of the former Congress president “beats logic”. “It has become clear that the Modi Government, having failed at every single aspect of governance is now desperate to divert attention from its latest half-baked attempt at policy making….”The Agnipath scheme, launched without consultation or application of mind, is the latest in a series of poorly thought-out announcements to cause widespread protests across the nation,” Singhvi said.”Rahul Gandhi is being summoned to distract the nation’s attention, to keep all cameras focused on this charade of a process, to make sure that the protesting voices against Agnipath do not get the platforms they deserve,” he said. “And how does the Modi Government address these protests? The only way it knows how. Through distraction and deceit”, “Or their best excuse to put every blame on the opposition”, he said.
Singhvi said Rahul Gandhi has now been questioned for almost 40 hours for four days and has been called back again on Tuesday.”He is not being questioned because the ED, after seven years has made some remarkable discovery,” he said, “but to camouflage those issues that deserve attention — Agnipath, price-rise, or unemployment.. “The Congress spokesperson also said with every passing day, the ED summons to Rahul Gandhi reveal its desperation to manifest a case that does not exist.” It also reveals the absence of substance, the absence of rudimentary evidence that it would need to make this case,” he said. Singhvi pointed out that even after seven years, the ED somehow is still unable to produce an FIR outlining the offences alleged to have been committed by Rahul Gandhi and other members who served on the board of Young Indian. “There is no evidence of wrongdoing in the transfer of debt. All processes were followed and reported. Every transaction was documented in full light of day. And it is because the process was so minutely documented is how the original purveyor of this theory was able to obtain the papers to file his complaint,” he said. He also said there are no beneficiaries and Young Indian was a section 25 company, “a vehicle that exists for a particular charitable purpose.
It cannot pay salaries, dividends or profits to its directors. Who is the phantom beneficiary of the alleged crime?” He added that the Government, with all the tools at its disposal, has been unable to make a case after almost seven years since it first began this exercise. “The answer is because, like every other allegation, this too is based on lies and falsehoods. However, a cause of action cannot be fabricated on the basis of political malice and propaganda. It needs hard facts, violations of statute and evidence of deliberate criminal intent to violate those statutes, all of which are absent in this case,” he said. As per the complaint filed in the court of the Metropolitan Magistrate, Associated Journals Limited (AJL) took an interest-free loan of Rs 90.25 crore from Indian National Congress, which was not paid back. The Congress has maintained there is no money laundering involved, and has called the summon a politically motivated move.Singhvi said that as a lawyer he is flabbergasted at what questions and repeat questions can last for 40-hours, and if it turns out for one more long haul, Gandhi’s questioning will breach half-century-mark on Tuesday.” There is nothing constitutional or legal about this process, the entire ED exercise aimed at Rahul Gandhi is ‘personal’,” added the Supreme Court advocate. It is only “personal grudge, personal grievance, personal vendetta”, he said. The party spokesperson said it was a tragedy that the ED was being misused by the BJP which is “high on its rage”.