ED Summons BJP Worker Who Claims Rahul Gandhi Is British National

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker who had filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court claiming that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is a British national, reported news agency PTI citing official sources.

The person, identified as S. Vignesh Shishir of Karnataka, has been directed to depose before the ED on September 9 and furnish all the evidence and documents he has on the case as per the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), the PTI report said.

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Under FEMA, the federal probe agency probes complaints related to foreign exchange law violations by individuals and companies.

A probe into these allegations is underway, the official sources said.

Shishir in his PIL claimed that he has documents and some emails of the British government which prove Rahul Gandhi , the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, is a British citizen, and due to that he is ineligible to contest elections in India.

On August 30, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had ordered round-the-clock security for Shishir to be provided by the Union government.

In an interim order, a bench of Justices Sangeeta Chandra and BR Singh said: "We are prima facie satisfied that the matter required consideration as the petitioner has been pursuing his cases against a very powerful individual and is facing constant threats and has to appear before the investigating officer at police station Kotwali, Raebareli district, in pursuance of notice issued to him."

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Shishir had submitted to the HC that on his complaint, moved in June 2024, a probe was underway by the CBI and he claimed that he had appeared before the agency in Delhi on multiple occasions, furnishing evidence of Gandhi's alleged British citizenship.

During a hearing in this case, the central government had informed the court that it had written to the United Kingdom government seeking details about Gandhi's British citizenship.

The High Court has posted the matter for next hearing on October 9.

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