INDIA’S money laundering investigators on Tuesday (21) said they seized properties worth ₹7.52 billion (£72 million) in a probe linked to a nine-year-old complaint against opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia.
The complaint, lodged by an MP from prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014, accused the Gandhis of illegally gaining control of property worth $300m (£239m). The property belonged to a firm that published the National Herald newspaper, founded in 1937 by India’s first prime minister and Rahul Gandhi’s great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru.
The seized assets include properties in New Delhi and Mumbai as well as investments in equity shares, the Enforcement Directorate said.
“This is a prefabricated structure of deceit, lies and falsehood by and for the BJP, to divert, distract and digress in the middle of elections,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.
Five Indian states are voting to elect new legislatures this month. The regional polls are key, coming ahead of national elections due next year.
FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past a poster displaying a message of defiance to the terror attack of May 22 at the Manchester Arena, in Manchester, northwest England on May 31, 2017. (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)