The News
Indian authorities accused two top opposition figures of money laundering, paving the way for criminal charges against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most prominent opponents.
Authorities alleged that the Congress Party’s leader Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia, the former party president, formed a shell company to illegally buy assets belonging to a newspaper publisher. They have denied wrongdoing, and a Congress spokesperson accused Modi of employing “the politics of vendetta and intimidation.”
Modi has been previously accused of cracking down on opponents: His political nemesis in Delhi was arrested last year on corruption charges.
Rahul Gandhi, a member of India’s most dominant political dynasty, wasn’t seen as a threat to Modi until an unexpected comeback in last year’s national elections.