Congress slams ED's raid at National Herald HQ in Delhi as "vendetta politics"

Condemning the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) raids on Congress-owned National Herald newspaper's head office as "vendetta politics", the party on Tuesday said the action was part of the continued attack on the country's principal opposition party.

''The raids on Herald House, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg are a part of the continued attack against India's principal opposition -- Indian National Congress,'' Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet.

''We strongly condemn this vendetta politics against those who speak up against the Modi Govt,'' he said.

Officials said the searches are being carried out under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to ''gather additional evidence with regard to the trail of funds''.

Officers of the federal agency also searched the National Herald office located on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in central Delhi.

The address is registered in the name of Associated Journals Ltd which publishes the newspaper.

The ED has recently questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her MP son Rahul Gandhi in this case, apart from a few other Congress politicians.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders have alleged that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government is using central agencies to pressure their senior party leaders, saying that a "fake case" has been filed to ruin the reputation of the Gandhi family.

As per reports, Sonia Gandhi was asked over 100 questions by the ED in a span of 12 hours, which were spread out over three days. Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi was asked over 150 questions in 5 sessions of ED questioning, which were over 21 hours long.

The Gandhis, and several other Congress leaders, were under the lens of the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald newspaper money laundering case, when Associated Journals Limited (AJL) – the company that runs the newspaper – was taken over by a company called the Young Indian.