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TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee’s wife skips ED summons in coal smuggling case
ED officials said Rujira Banerjee’s sister Maneka Gambhir has been summoned to Delhi on Thursday and Abhishek Banerjee will be called again.
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira Banerjee skipped the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons in the Bengal coal smuggling case, officials familiar with the matter said.
Rujira Banerjee was summoned to appear before the agency in its office in Delhi on Wednesday for questioning in the Bengal coal smuggling case. On Tuesday, her husband did not appear before ED citing personal reasons.
ED officials said Rujira Banerjee’s sister Maneka Gambhir has been summoned to Delhi on Thursday and Abhishek will be called again.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior TMC leader said Abhishek and his wife may not appear before the agency in the coming weeks. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged on Tuesday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is using central probe agencies such as ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to corner opposition parties. She also wrote to chief ministers of non-BJP-ruled states, asking them to unite.
Abhishek Banerjee faced ED in Delhi on March 21. However, before leaving for the national capital he said it could not be a coincidence that the Delhi high court quashed his appeal for not appearing before ED in Delhi only after the BJP won the assembly polls in four states.
“I will see where this ends. I moved the Delhi high court last year saying ED cannot summon me to Delhi for questioning because the case is related to Bengal. The court heard my appeal over four months and then reserved its order for the next three months. On March 10, the BJP won the polls in four states. On March 11, the court set aside my appeal. This cannot be a coincidence. I will move the Supreme court,” Abhishek Banerjee said at the Kolkata airport on March 20.
The CBI registered the case in November 2020 and ED joined the probe later. It is alleged that illegally mined coal, worth several thousand crores of rupees, was sold in the black market over several years by a racket operating in the western parts of Bengal where Eastern Coalfields Limited runs several mines. It is alleged that proceeds from the coal trade went to political leaders.
The young TMC leader and his wife as well as Maneka Gambhir and her husband and father-in-law were questioned earlier in connection with an alleged transfer of funds to a foreign bank. It has been alleged that this transaction is related to coal smuggling.
Abhishek Banerjee is not the only TMC leader who is under the radar of the central agencies.
On March 16, a special CBI court in Bengal’s West Burdwan district issued an arrest warrant against TMC’s former youth front leader and businessman Vinay Mishra who renounced his Indian citizenship in December 2020 and became a citizen of Vanuatu, a small island country in the south-west Pacific. His brother, Vikas, was arrested earlier by ED.
ED filed its first chargesheet in the coal smuggling case at a special court in Delhi in August last year, naming Vikas Mishra and former officer-in-charge of Bankura police station, Ashok Mishra, as prime accused.
