Jammu, July 21 – Several top leaders of Congress including PCC functionaries, former Ministers, Legislators, Corporators, DCC presidents, and Frontal Heads were amongst those arrested, when congress held a strong protest demonstration at Shaheedi Chowk Jammu and marched towards ED Office, in protest against ED summon to Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi as part of vendetta politics of Modi Govt.
Senior leaders comprising Working President Raman Bhalla, Former Dy C.M. Tara Chand, Mula Ram, Kanta Bhan, Ravinder Sharma, Yogesh Sawhney,Th. Balwan Singh, Manmohan Singh, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Vikar Rasool, Dr. Manohar Lal Sharma, T.S. Bajwa, Th. Balbir Singh, Ashok Dogra, Krishan Bhagat, Subash Gupta, Dina Nath Bhagat, Gurbachan Kumari Rana, Ved Mahajan, Hari Singh Chib and several others were arrested along with hundreds of workers when they held a strong protest demonstration and took out a march to ED Office against the vindictive actions of Modi Govt. against Congress President Sonia Gandhi and others as part of vindictive policies and misuse of Central agencies.
The large number of leaders and workers were carrying play cards and raising slogans in favour of Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi and against BJP Govt. and ED and took out a peaceful march when a heavy contingent of police took them into preventive custody and taken to Dist. Police Line Jammu. Congress leaders and workers from different districts assembled at PCC HQ Jammu as part of nationwide protest against Centre Govt. and BJP over the politics of vendetta and misuse of Central agencies like ED against Congress leadership to malign their image in false and fabricated cases.
The Congress leaders and workers showed solidarity with the leadership and said that they shall unitedly fight back the politics of vendetta of BJP Govt. led by Shri Narender Modi against oldest opposition party in the country.
Prominent others who took part in the Satyagraha and were arrested include Raman Bhalla, Tara Chand, Mula Ram, Kanta Bhan, Ravinder Sharma, , Yogesh Sawhney, Balwan Singh, Vikar Rasool Wani, Jugal Kishore, Manhor Lal Sharma, Manmohan Singh, Subash Gupta, Th Balbir Singh, Tirlok Singh Bajwa, Ved Mahajan, Hari Singh Chib, Uday Banu Chib, Krishan Chand Bhagat, Dina Nath, Gurdarshan Singh , Vinod Sharma, Pawan Raina, Narinder Sharma. Shashi Sharma, Satish Sharma, Thomas Khokhar, Sanjeev Panda, Manjeet Jatt, ,Suresh Dogra, , Swran Singh, Rajveer Singh, Vandana Makhnotra, Amri Bali, Sevadal Chairman Vijay Sharma Babbi, District President Ashok Dogra(Ex-MLA), Sanjeev Sharma, Rajesh Sadhotra, Pankaj Dogra, Parnav Shagotra, Kapil Singh, Sahil Sharma, Ashif Naqib, Corporators Dwarka Choudhary, Rittu Choudhary, Rashpal Bhardwaj, Shobat Ali, Gourav Chopra, Rajinder Singh, Babal Gupta, Ricky Dalotra, Ashok Gupta, Adv. Masood Choudhary Kajol Rajput, Manav Upadhyaya, Rayaz Nayaz, Arun Singh Raju, Narinder Gupta, Rajiv Saraf, Brijmohan Sharma, Vinod Khajuria, Sumit Magotra, Kulbir Singh Pathania, Vijay Shastri , Aradhana Andotra, Rajinder Singh Pinky, Camres David Babloo, Parshotam Mehra, Balbir Singh, Surinder Advocate, Ashok Bakshi, Om Prakash, Bilal Ahmed, Varun Magotra, Santosh Majotra, Santosh Manhas, Varun Sharma,H.S. Bagi, Atul Sharma, Chander Sheikhar, Sat Pal Spolia,Gurmeet Singh and others.
Earlier addressing the Congress workers Shri Raman Bhalla said that using the Central agencies, the Centre was trying to demoralise the Congress to prevent emergence of a united opposition. Otherwise, there is no reason to issue summons to Mrs Gandhi without filing a case.The PCC Working Chief said the party would intensify the agitation and would organize demonstrations against the ED summons. Bhalla hit out at the BJP-led Central government, accusing it of indulging in cheap vendetta politics to divert attention from issues such as inflation, falling GDP growth, social unrest, and social divisiveness in the country. He said the case of money laundering was “weird” as there was no money involved. He argued that the charges were “hollow, hollower than a pack of cards”. We will face them, we are not a bit scared or overawed or intimidated by such cheap tactics. He went on to add, “The fake issue of AJL, Associated Journals, is an attempt by the BJP’s propaganda machinery to deviate, diverge and digress the attention of citizens from the multifarious, vital issues of inflation, falling GDP and social unrest, social divisiveness in the country. This is truly a very weird case. Money laundering case on which summons is issued with no money involved.
Elaborating on the case, Bhalla said, from 2014 to ’15, the ED had not thought if fit till today because they know they have no material to seek summons about the Congress president or the former Congress president. Today, on the same facts, exactly the same alleged acts and omissions, not a comma, a full stop is changed in May 2022, (and) you are issued summons to divert attention on the same facts by the ED.”With regard to the case, he said AJL had come under financial stress over the decades, following which the Congress stepped in and gave “Rs 90 odd crores” as financial support over a period of time.
AJL did what every company in India does, what every company abroad does. What is known as the basics of corporate activity. It converted its debt into equity. So this debt of 90 crores was assigned to a new company. It is called Young India so that the books of AJL become debt-free. Young India, in turn, which received the debt was a newly created company under a special provision of the Companies Act — Section 25 — which has very two vital conditions. It has to be a not for profit company by definition, by statute and by law and no dividend can be given to its shareholders or directors, so you cannot take a penny.”
The Congress leader added, “The third important fact is that AJL continues to hold all the properties it was holding earlier. It continues to be the owner of the National Herald and its printer and publisher. The only change is that Young India is holding the shareholding of AJL. So there is no transfer of property. So where is the money laundering? Where does it arise? Where is the money? So there is no money, no transfer of property. There is no transfer of money. Yet a charge of money laundering is done. Young India cannot use money in any form which it gets because it can neither pay dividend nor accumulate profit by which it can give out the money.”The Congress leader said this was why “better minds, objective minds, non-malevolent, non-malafide minds closed this case in file”.“But as malafide as this government is , they sack the head of the ED at that time, they get a new opinion and they try to reopen, in respect of which seven years later today they summoned Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi,” Bhalla added.