Two members of one of India’s most prominent political dynasties, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, have been charged with money laundering.
The country’s financial crimes agency – the Enforcement Directorate – has charged the Gandhis and others of setting up a shell company to illegally acquire the assets of the National Herald newspaper.
Rajiv Gandhi, a former head of the Indian Congress Party (INC), is currently serving as the party’s leader in the Indian parliament, where the INC (also known as Congress) is the biggest opposition party, while Gandhi’s mother, Sonia, is the party’s chairperson.
They are members of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty – Rahul’s great-grandfather was Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, while his grandmother, Indira Gandhi, and father, Rajiv Gandhi, also served in that post.
Rahul’s Italian-born mother married Rajiv after meeting him in the UK, where they were both studying.
Congress said that the charges were a “politics of vendetta and intimidation”. The party also said it would organise nationwide protests.
In recent years the political opposition has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of weaponizing the Enforcement Directorate against opposition politicians.
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