It's open & shut case, Cong workers should protest against Gandhis: Puri

NEW DELHI: Asserting that the National Herald matter is an "open and shut" case, BJP Thursday kept up the heat on Gandhi family on the issue of corruption and alleged that Congress workers are being misled to protest against probe agencies by the "kingpins" of the case who have now been named in chargesheet.

"These workers should know that this is an open and shut case of fraud, corruption and money laundering, and that they should actually be protesting against their own leaders who have swindled the money and resources of their own party in the garb of 'protecting' a newspaper which had stopped publication in 2008," said senior BJP leader Hardeep Singh Puri at a presser.

Noting that Sonia and Rahul together hold 76% share in the Young Indian, he said the company transferred 99% share of AJL, which owns National Herald, for a nominal amount of Rs 50 lakh. AJL, he said, owned properties worth over Rs 2,000 crore. He alleged, "It is an open and shut case of fraud, corruption and money laundering."

Puri said the case dates back to a time when the Congress-led UPA govt was in office and added that the then metropolitan magistrate had asserted that the Young Indian appeared to be created as a cloak to use public money for personal use.