The Congress on Thursday refuted any links with Tushar Goyal, the alleged kingpin of Rs 5,000 crore drug bust in Delhi, saying the BJP is hiding the facts about the accused as Goyal himself has admitted that he was never associated with the Youth Congress after 2022.

Goyal, the primary suspect, was apprehended after the recovery of more than 500 kilograms of cocaine and 40 kilograms of hydroponic marijuana valued at over Rs 5,600 crore in a raid carried out in south Delhi on Wednesday.

In a post on X, the Youth Congress accused the saffron party of misleading the country based on lies and deception, adding “this is a crime under the law and it will soon give a legal answer to it”.

Pointing out the misleading facts being presented by BJP, the Congress fact-checked and said Goyal was removed from the Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress RTI department in October 2022 itself due to anti-party activities.

Continuing its clarification, the grand old party said that after October 17, 2022, the said Tushar Goyal has never been associated with the youth wing in any capacity.

Earlier in the day, the BJP accused the Congress of having links with Goyal and said: “Drugs worth Rs 5,600 crore have been recovered from Delhi. The main accused in this case is Tushar Goyal, who is the chief of the RTI cell of the Indian Youth Congress. This means that it is becoming clear that till now only goods of hatred were visible in Rahul Gandhi’s shop of love, but now drugs are also being found. What is the connection of Congress with the drugs recovered and the accused?”

Furthermore, the Congress said that Goyal himself has admitted that he was never associated with the Youth Congress after 2021-22, which makes it clear that BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi and BJP IT CELL, through a press conference, while hiding the facts, described him as a current office bearer of the Youth Congress, which is clearly a frustrated attempt to tarnish the image of the Indian Youth Congress organisation, against which “we are bound to take legal action”.

“While showing the so-called pictures of the said criminal with our leaders, you people deliberately hid the pictures of Tushar Goyal with BJP leaders which makes it clear that this entire story was fabricated in view of Haryana elections,” the grand old party’s youth wing said.

“And yes, Delhi Police is under your government, give the harshest punishment to the criminal and do not run this fake campaign based on selective and incorrect facts. Because our organization never defends criminals like rapist Brij Bhushan like you people. Be prepared for legal action,” the Youth Congress added.

Ashok Tanwar, senior BJP leader, rejoined the Congress at party leader Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Haryana’s Mahendragarh on Thursday.

“Joined the Indian National Congress family at Mahendragarh rally in the presence of Former Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Ji,” Tanwar said after rejoining the grand old party in a post on X.

As Lok Sabha LoP was about to finish his speech, an announcement was made from the stage asking the audience to wait for a few minutes. To everyone’s surprise, Tanwar walked onto the stage, and it was then declared that he had rejoined the congress.

Just an hour before, Tanwar was campaigning for the saffron party candidate ahead of the Haryana Assembly election, which is scheduled for October 5.

Before his departure from the party, Tanwar served as the Haryana Congress chief from 2014 to 2019. In 2021, he joined the Trinamool Congress and then switched to AAP the following year.

However, Tanwar left AAP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls due to his opposition to AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to ally with Congress. After leaving AAP, he joined the BJP and contested in the general election from Sirsa but lost to Congress’s Kumari Selja.

The former Congress chief was addressing an election rally in Mahendragarh with other senior leaders including former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Addressing the rally, Gandhi said: “The fight that is going on is the fight of ideology. There was a big LS election, now there is this Haryana election. On one side, there is a Congress party and on the other, there is BJP and RSS. We say that the country should be run by Constitution, it is for all, and everybody benefits from it. When we think about the country, development, progress, army, bureaucracy, we start from the Constitution. On the other hand, the BJP and the RSS don’t believe in it and want to finish it. They won’t say it in public meetings. They know that there is a deep relation of the country with the Constitution. But whatever they do, they do it to weaken the Constitution.”

Tanwar, an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, started his political journey with Congress’s student wing National Students Union of India. He served as the president of the student organisation and also led the Indian Youth Congress, the youth wing of the Congress, before assuming higher positions in the grand old party.

Former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin failed to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday in a money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in the Hyderabad Cricket Association.

According to PTI, the 61-year-old was asked to depose before the central agency at its office here on October 3 and get his statement recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The former Congress MP, however, sought more time from the agency. He has been issued a fresh summons for October 8, according to reports.

In November last year, the ED had conducted searches related to alleged financial irregularities in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA).

The ED had then raided the premises of former office bearers of the HCA, including former HCA vice president and Indian cricketer Shivlal Yadav, Congress MLA and ex-HCA president Gaddam Vinod, former HCA secretary Arshad Ayub apart from the office of a company called S S Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and the residential premise of its managing director (MD), Satyanarayana.

The agency is investigating Azharuddin’s actions during his time as the HCA president. The former Indian skipper, who ran for Assembly polls last year, has not yet responded.

The money laundering case is based on three FIRs and charge sheets filed by the Telangana anti-corruption bureau (ACB), alleging misappropriation of HCA funds amounting to Rs 20 crore.

The charge sheets allege serious irregularities in the procurement of DG sets, firefighting systems, and canopies for the Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium in Uppal, Hyderabad. The ED previously stated that despite deadlines, several works were delayed, resulting in increased costs, budget enhancements, and corresponding losses to the HCA.

The office bearers of the HCA, including the then secretary, president, vice-president, and others, allegedly colluded with private parties to secure tenders and works at higher than market rates without proper tender processes. The agency also alleged that advance payments were made to many contractors without any work being done.

The ED’s raids last year led to the seizure of digital devices, incriminating documents, and unaccounted cash of Rs 10.39 lakh.

Azharuddin, a former cricketer, started his political career by winning the Moradabad Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and currently serves as the working president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC).