Bhubaneswar, December 17: Congress workers and leaders staged a protest outside the BJP office on Wednesday here against the actions taken by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against senior party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

This comes a day after a Delhi court declined to take cognisance of the ED's prosecution complaint in the National Herald money-laundering case, holding that proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) are not maintainable in the absence of an FIR for the scheduled (predicate) offence.

Under the leadership of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Bhakta Charan Das, a large number of party workers marched from the State Congress Office and gheraoed the BJP Headquarters. Heavy security arrangements have been made by the Commissionerate Police to maintain law and order.

“The National Herald case is a farce manufactured around a web of lies. These people (PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah) have tortured the safe keepers of truth, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, for 12 years. They are doing this for political vendetta. This case is only to trouble the Gandhi family. So, we are holding this protest today by gheraoing the BJP office,” said Das.

He alleges that the ED’s actions are illegal, malicious, and carried out at the behest of the BJP.

Notably, a local court in Delhi observed that the ED's complaint against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Sam Pitroda and others was based on a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and the summoning order passed on it in 2014, and not on any FIR. It held that such a complaint cannot substitute the statutory requirement of an FIR under the PMLA framework.