Modi to arrest Rahul in foreign funding, money laundering case

ISLAMABAD: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has planned to arrest leader of major opposition Congress Party chief Rahul Gandhi for violation of various laws like money laundering and foreign contributions by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust and the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.

According to reports the inter-ministerial committee in New Delhi announced by the government on Wednesday to coordinate the probe into the alleged violation the laws, the meeting will be held today (Thursday) at the MTNL building on Jawaharlal Nehru Marg near New Delhi's Ram Lila grounds. It is likely to adopt a plan of action on how to probe the alleged flow of Chinese funds to these trusts. The Indian government has appointed Vivek R Wadekar, special director, Enforcement Directorate (central region), as chairman of inter-ministerial committee that includes six government agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Central Excise (CE), Income Tax (IT), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), and the Union ministry of home affairs (HA). The news was broken by an innocuous tweet by the Indian home ministry spokesman, but it was by no means a routine decision, reports suggested. It was a major political decision taken at the highest level following internal discussions that were held so secretively over the past one month that even bureaucracy could not get a whiff of what was being planned. The provocation was the regular criticism of the government that flowed from Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka and others over the coronavirus pandemic and the Chinese actions in Ladakh. The charge of the Rajiv Gandhi Trust receiving Chinese funds was first made by BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda. Indian Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad then asked if the funds allegedly received were a 'bribe' for facilitating a free trade deal between China and India. The committee expected to hit the ground running, officials of the three Nehru-Gandhi family-linked trusts will be summoned for questioning and official records will be seized. "It is going to be a tough time for the office-bearers and employees of these trusts," says a government source.