On Tuesday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its investigation under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) recorded the statement of S. Vignesh Shishir, a BJP worker in Karnataka, who is the complainant in a long-running citizenship row against Rahul Gandhi. This was the first such statement ever to be put on record by Shishir, though the agency initiated an investigation of the issue almost four years ago.
The ED summoned Shishir to meet the investigators and provide any piece of supporting evidence to his claim. Addressing the media outside the ED office in Bengaluru at about 11 a.m., Shishir said, “I have been called by the Enforcement Directorate. Rahul Gandhi is a British national, as evidenced. Such documents have already been provided to the Lucknow CBI by me.”
Shishir had in his previous Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to the Allahabad High Court, alleged that Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, was a British citizen. He also alleged to have documents and emails by British authorities, which, in his view, substantiate his allegations. Shishir claims that, in case Gandhi is really a British citizen, then he cannot contest an election in India and hence cannot represent it as a Member of Parliament.
The Centre, as the authorities report, has already addressed British authorities with a request to clarify the issue. In the meantime, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, in a move dated August 28, issued an order that Shishir be given round-the-clock security, on the basis of threats to his life because of his legal action against a very powerful person.
Shishir also informed the court that in his complaint made in June 2024, the CBI initiated an investigation and that he had already attended the agency in Delhi on various occasions, submitting what he purports to be documentary proof of the supposed British citizenship of Gandhi.
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