Mumbai,  Hours after the Enforcement Directorate summoned interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi for questioning in the National Herald case on July 21, the Maharashtra unit of Congress accused the BJP-led Central government of pursuing vendetta politics against the Opposition parties.

"The dictatorial government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is acting arbitrarily and misusing institutions like the ED, Income Tax and CBI to silence the Opposition. Even the ED notice sent to Sonia Gandhi in the National Herald case has arisen out of this political vendetta," said state party President Nana Patole.

Reiterating that the party or its leaders would not be "cowed down" by such tactics of vengeance, Patole said that not a single rupee was misappropriated and none of the directors of the company received any dividends or kickbacks, as alleged.

"All the transactions are completely transparent. How can money-laundering take place when there is no transfer of movable or immovable property with no benefits to anyone," Patole said.

The reopening of the National Herald case - which was closed in 2015 - is just another strategy of the Modi government to unnecessarily and deliberately harass the Gandhi family and the party leaders, and the ED summons are in the same vein, he added.

Accusing the Centre of making efforts to intimidate the Congress and its leaders, the state party chief said that "we are not scared of these" moves, and the party will continue to raise public issues and keep on questioning the Modi regime.

Patole recalled how recently the ED had harassed Rahul Gandhi daily for 10 hours over five days "under the guise of interrogation", and slammed the Centre for using the Central probe agencies like its puppets.