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Bengal coal scam case: Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee being questioned in Delhi
Coal scam case: After Delhi High Court ruling, Abhishek Banerjee questioned today, Rujira Banerjee to be questioned tomorrow
Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee is being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate at its Delhi office in connection with a money laundering case linked to the Bengal coal scam. Banerjee, 34, reached the central probe agency's offices at around 11 am, before which officials told news agency PTI case investigators plan to record the Trinamool leader's statements and confront him with 'evidence' about his role and links to other accused.
Banerjee was last questioned in this case in September. His wife, Rujira, was also summoned and is expected at the agency office tomorrow, PTI reported.
Both Abhishek Banerjee and Rujira Banerjee were summoned Thursday, after the Delhi High court refused relief to either Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew or his wife.
The couple argued against being called to Delhi for questioning as they are residents of Bengal. Banerjee also claimed he was being asked to travel against his doctor's advice - he said he had been told to rest after a medical procedure.
Banerjee has reportedly moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi court's decision. "I will go to the Supreme Court. That path is open to me. We have faith in the topmost justice system in the country," he had earlier said.
Banerjee pointed out the Enforcement Directorate also had an office in Kolkata. "... call me (there) as many times as you like. I will come there..."
Abhishek Banerjee has also accused the BJP-led central government of misusing agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, particularly after the Trinamool recorded an emphatic win in last year's Assembly election.
"We defeated them [in Bengal polls] and they cannot digest this. I am ready to bow down before the power of people but not those in power," he said.
READ: ED summons Abhishek Banerjee again in Bengal coal smuggling case
Bengal BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya hit back at the claim and said: "The agencies are doing their job following court orders. The CBI and ED decide who will be questioned and when."
Meanwhile, in a brewing tit-for-tat over Banerjee's summons, Kolkata Police on Sunday summoned three senior Enforcement Directorate personnel, including a senior official from Delhi, in connection with an audio tape leak case.
They were asked to appear before the detective department at the Kalighat Police Station around noon on Monday, a senior police officer said.
Kolkata Police is probing a case against a businessman allegedly heard talking to an Enforcement Directorate officer on topics like cattle smuggling and coal scam in a clip leaked before last year's Bengal election.
The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a case over illegally mined coal worth thousands of crores in November 2020.
The coal was allegedly sold on the black market in Bengal and proceeds from the coal trade allegedly went to political leaders from the ruling Trinamool.
The Enforcement Directorate, which took cognisance of the CBI's charges and filed a case in May, has claimed that Banerjee, the Lok Sabha MP for Diamond Harbour, was a beneficiary of this illegal trade.
Two people have been arrested so far - Vikas Mishra, the brother of Trinamool youth wing leader Vinay Mishra, who has reportedly fled and renounced his Indian citizenship, and the former police officer in-charge of the Bankura police station, Ashok Kumar Mishra. Local coal operator Anup Majhi, alias Lala, is alleged to be the prime suspect in the case.
With input from PTI
