Congress Protesting To Save Rahul Gandhi's properties worth Rs. 2,000 crore, says Smriti Irani

New Delhi: Congress party workers took to the streets protesting in support of Rahul Gandhi who was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani took a jab at the opposition party's action stating that the party is not protesting to save democracy but to save Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his properties worth Rs. 2,000 crores.

Speaking at the party headquarters here in New Delhi, Irani said that the protest by party workers across the nation is an attempt to pressurise investigating agencies (Enforcement Directorate). She said that never before has a political family attempted to hold investigative agencies to ransom to protect the assets of the Gandhi family.

Explaining the backdrop of the case against the senior Congress leaders, Irani said, "In the 1930s, Associate Journals Limited (AJL) was formed with 5,000 freedom fighters as its shareholders. Today, a company that was to be run by freedom fighters has been controlled by the Gandhi family."

She alleged that ownership of the family was undertaken to turn it into a real estate business instead. She went on to state that the AJL had incurred debts of Rs. 90 crore in 2008 and decided that it would enter the property business and in 2010 a company named Young India was constituted with an initial capital of Rs. 5 lakhs wherein the Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi was made its director.

"Mr. Gandhi alone had a 75 percent stake in the company, the rest was with his mother Sonia Gandhi and Congress leaders like Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes. 9 crore shares of AJL, which is 99 percent of the total shares, are then transferred to Young India. Congress party then gave Rs. 90 crore as a loan to AJL which doesn't need to be returned," she said.

The Union Minister of Women and Child Development also said that though Young India was set up under section 25 of the Companies Act at the time, the company can only do charity work. In 2016, however, Young India had accepted that it hadn't done any charity work in the six years of its existence.

Questioning the Gandhi's over their alleged involvement with another entity, Irani "urged" the protesting Congress leaders who were in support of Rahul Gandhi to ask him about his connection with Dotex Merchandise Private Limited.

"Dotex Merchandise Private Limited is linked to a havala entry operator in Kolkata which gives cheques in exchange for cash. The Financial Intelligence Unit has red-flagged this company's financial transactions," she said.