The Congress said it will fight hard "legally, socially and politically". (File)
The BJP alleged on Thursday that the Gandhi family was the "most corrupt" family in the world, and said it was not the birthright of its members that probe agencies cannot summon them in accordance with law in a case of corruption.
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia launched a sharp counterattack on the Congress leadership a day after the opposition party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "cowardly conspiracy" against its president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi following the Enforcement Directorate's summons to them for questioning in the National Herald case.
The Congress had said that it will not be cowed down by such "vendetta" politics and will fight hard "legally, socially and politically".
Hitting back, Mr Bhatia said "corrupt" people will have to be scared and bow before the law and rejected the charge of political vendetta, noting that neither any high court nor the Supreme Court has ever quashed any proceedings in a case of corruption on such a ground.
Nobody be it Sonia Gandhi or Rahul is above the law, and it will apply equally to everyone, he said at a press conference.
Slamming the Congress for its attack on central probe agencies, accused by the opposition party of acting at the behest of the ruling BJP, Bhatia noted that investigation agency heads were summoned by the previous Congress government and their reports changed. They are now independent and act in an unbiased manner, he claimed.
The Congress should tell the country that both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul are on bail in a case of corruption (National Herald case), the BJP spokesperson said, adding that Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra had also received an anticipatory bail in a case of alleged graft against him involving land deals.
"If there is one most corruption family not only in India but in the world, then it is the Gandhi family," he alleged, adding that people used to look at the family with trust but they tried to loot the country. No court has quashed any proceedings against them, he said.
The Delhi High Court in 2015 had rejected a plea to quash proceedings against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the case, and the Supreme Court also refused to interfere with the decision, he said.
The ED had summoned Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper.
While Sonia Gandhi has been asked to depose before the agency at its headquarters in central Delhi on June 8, Rahul Gandhi has been asked to appear on Thursday June 2. Rahul Gandhi has written to the probe agency to postpone the date to after June 5 as he is not in the country.
Citing the details of the case, Gaurav Bhatia alleged that the Young Indian company with the two members of the Gandhi family having 76 per cent stake was incorporated with the sole aim to capture the assets worth over Rs 2,000 crore of Associated Journals of India, which publishes the National Herald newspaper linked to the Congress.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)