New low in politics: Sibal slams ED’s attachment of National Herald assets

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Wednesday slammed the Enforcement Directorate for attaching assets of the Congress-promoted National Herald newspaper and described it as a “new low in politics”.

Sibal, a former Congress leader, also alleged that the probe agency has been acting at the behest of the “powers that be”.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Tuesday that it has attached immovable assets and equity shares worth about Rs 752 crore as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation against the National Herald newspaper and companies linked to it.

The provisional attachment order came as elections in five states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram are in progress and the counting of votes is scheduled to be held on December 3.

“The problem in this country is that we have a narrative that is associated with the media and the narrative is started by investigating agencies to destroy people’s reputation. Now this trial will take years and the powers that be will go from speech to speech before the 2024 polls... they will say see these people have cheated when we all know there is no basis for this,” he added. The Congress termed the ED action “petty vendetta tactics” and said the agency is a “coalition partner” of the BJP which, it claimed, is staring at a certain defeat in the Assembly polls.

Sibal, who was a Union minister during UPA government, quit the Congress in May last year and was elected to the Rajya Sabha as an independent member with the Samajwadi Party’s support.