Congress claims Herald case proved baseless; not over yet, says BJP

New Delhi: As Congress on Tuesday said court’s refusal to take cognisance of the ED chargesheet in the National Herald issue exposed Centre’s use of hysteria to hype a hollow case, BJP countered that the court’s ruling is no exoneration of Sonia Gandhi and a bail should not be seen as acquittal. Senior lawyer and Congress MP Abhishek Singhvi, who led the legal battle, said the matter never had any merit, but the govt used the media to exaggerate groundless claims. “It was a strange case where no money was transferred and no property changed hands, but it was called money laundering. Young India, which controls AJL, cannot give any money, dividend or perks to the leaders sitting there. The court did not take cognisance of the case, which is the first step.

It shows the case was baseless,” he said. BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia was quick to point out that the dismissal is procedural and not on merit as there was no finding in favour of the accused. “The primary criminal case, which originated from the private complaint filed by Subramanian Swamy, alleging cheating, criminal conspiracy, and breach of trust (the predicate offense), is still pending trial in the Court,” he said.Claiming vindication, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said when the case was brought by the Modi govt, party leadership said “if we didn’t fear the British, BJP-RSS or Modi-Shah cannot scare us.” He added, “Today, court too has declared Modi govt’s actions illegal and foiled this conspiracy hatched with malicious intent of political revenge. We will continue our fight for 1.4 billion Indians and to save the Constitution.”