Shimla, Apr 16 (PTI) Vehemently opposing the chargesheet filed against senior party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald money laundering case, the Congress workers staged a protest outside the Enforcement Directorate office here on Wednesday.

Holding placards which read ‘ED se dhamkana band karo’ (stop threatening through ED), the Congress workers raised anti-government slogans during the protest.

Condemning the Centre’s move, Himachal Pradesh Congress president Pratibha Singh said the BJP leaders are unable to give a satisfactory reply on matters related to unemployment, Manipur violence and Adani which were raised by Rahul Gandhi in Parliament and they are now resorting to such tactics to divert public attention from the main issues at hand.

Asserting the party stands united behind the Gandhi family, she said the Congress leader and workers are even willing to go to jail to oppose the Centre’s move.

Echoing similar sentiments, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu termed the move an attempt to suppress the voice of the opposition led by Rahul Gandhi.

“Our protest is against the functioning of the Enforcement Directorate, which is working under the direction of its political masters,” he said.

Accusing the Centre of misusing agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against political opponents, the Congress workers said the ruling BJP is hell-bent on “killing democracy under a well-planned conspiracy” to retain power.

The ED on Tuesday said that it filed a chargesheet on April 9 in a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper. Besides Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, the chargesheet names Congress leaders Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey as co-accused.

The case, based on a 2014 complaint by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, relates to the alleged acquisition of properties worth over Rs 2,000 crore by Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of National Herald, and their subsequent transfer to Young Indian – a company in which Sonia and Rahul Gandhi hold a 38 per cent stake each.

Meanwhile, state BJP chief Rajeev Bindal lashed out at the Congress and said the law is taking its own course.

Should law not take its own course if property worth thousands of crores is misappropriated? he asked. PTI BPL AS AS