Venugopal said the Congress will hold protests outside ED offices across the country on Wednesday to register its strong opposition to such politics of vendetta and intimidation.
The development comes as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a chargesheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others on charges of money laundering in the case.
"Filing chargesheets against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and some others is nothing but politics of vendetta and intimidation by the prime minister and the home minister gone completely berserk," Congress said in a post on X.
Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi called the case "fake" and said the government was exposing itself and its vendetta politics by indulging in such action.
"As stated years ago when this was initiated, the National Herald case is a one-trick wonder where this government has started a money-laundering investigation without there being any movement of money, any movement of property, any activity which caused a transfer," he said in a video statement.
A mere not-for-profit company was created to manage the National Herald's affairs where no dividends can be paid, no commercial transactions take place. The mere creation of that company with Sonia Gandhi and other members of the Gandhi family or the late Motilal Vora has been treated as an act of money laundering, he alleged.
"Now, there is nothing more except a chargesheet filed in a fake and non-existent case. Anyway, this will be contested fully in all aspects. Earlier, all statements had been recorded in this regard by the persons, including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi," the Congress leader said.
Special judge Vishal Gogne examined the chargesheet, which was filed on April 9, on the point of cognisance and posted the matter for further proceedings on April 25. The chargesheet also names Suman Dubey and Congress leader Sam Pitroda as accused.
It was filed under sections 3 (money laundering) and 4 (punishment for money laundering) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the ED's special public prosecutor NK Matta.
On Saturday, the ED said it served notices to take possession of immovable assets worth Rs 661 crore that it had attached as part of a probe linked to the Congress-controlled newspaper and the Associated Journals Limited. The federal probe agency said in a statement that it had served the relevant documents to the respective registrar of properties where the assets were located.
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