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Coal scam case: Menaka Gambhir, Abhishek Banerjee’s sister-in-law, to meet CBI officials today
A CBI team on Sunday served notices to Rujira Banerjee, Abhishek’s wife, and Gambhir to join the probe in the coal scam.
The sister-in-law of Trinamool Congress parliamentarian Abhishek Banerjee, Menaka Gambhir, has been asked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to join its probe in the coal smuggling case on Monday.
A CBI team on Sunday served notices to Rujira Banerjee, Abhishek’s wife, and Gambhir to join the probe in the coal scam. After the agency served the notice, Abhishek tweeted, saying that he and his family will not be 'cowed down’. “At 2 pm today, the CBI served a notice in the name of my wife. We have full faith in the law of the land. However, if they think they can use these ploys to intimidate us, they are mistaken. We are not the ones who would ever be cowed down,” Abhishek, who is West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, posted.
The chief minister also expressed her outrage over the CBI’s notices, alleging that the agency is working at the behest of the ruling party. Addressing an event hours after the serving of notices, she said, “Don't try to intimidate us with jail. We have fought against guns and are not afraid of fighting against rats.”
The central agency is investigating the theft of coal from the mines of Eastern Coalfields Ltd. The agency had filed a case last year against Anup Manjhi alias Lala, Eastern Coalfield Ltd (ECL) general managers Amit Kumar Dhar and Jayesh Chandra Rai along with ECL chief of security Tanmay Das, area security inspector, Kunustoria Dhananjay Rai and SSI and security in-charge Debashish Mukherjee, according to a report by PTI.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying that it is using the investigating agencies for its own advantages. The party also alleged that the notices served by the CBI are part of its electoral agenda and dismissed the allegations by the law enforcement agencies as part of political vendetta by the party which is pitted in a tough electoral battle.
The notices served to Rujira and Menaka Gambhir are set to further intensify the tense mood prevailing in Bengal as the state gears up for the polls. West Bengal is scheduled to hold elections later this year.
