New Delhi: As Rahul Gandhi's interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate entered its third consecutive day, his party, the Congress has sent a legal notice to the government which alleges that the media is being fed incorrect information to misreport how Mr Gandhi is handling his questioning.
The legal notice, sent today, cites three reports on news channels to make its point. It says that these channels claimed, based on unnamed sources, that Mr Gandhi, accused of money-laundering, is being "evasive" during his sessions with interrogators and "appears be tutored by his lawyers." The government must stop these deliberate leaks, the cease-and-desist notice says.
Mr Gandhi has clocked over 25 hours of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate after it summoned him alleging that with his mother, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, he formed a shell company to gain illegal control of property worth $300 million that was owned by a newspaper founded in 1937 by India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was Mr Gandhi's great grandfather.
The notice sent by the Congress to Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman accuses the government of using the Enforcement Directorate for political vendetta. It agues that the "leaks" to the media are being used to further the government's agenda .
"The Supreme Court has on several occasions reiterated that premature disclosure or leakage to the media in cases where investigation is pending is an anathema to the rule of law", the notice states, describing the action as "the last refuge of a "failed agency".
"We will fight undeterred, we will fight fearlessly," the Congress spokesman, Randeep Singh Surjewala, has said. This morning, there were new clashes between the police and Congress workers who were demonstrating against Mr Gandhi's interrogation ahead of his 11 am arrival at the Enforcement Directorate.