KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and sister-in-law Menaka Gambhir for questioning in connection with its money laundering probe related to the coal smuggling case, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday.
Abhishek Banerjee has been told to appear before ED officials at its Kolkata office on September 2 and Menaka Gambhir, sister of Abhishek’s wife Rujira, has been told to turn up at ED’s Delhi office on September 5, an ED official said. Gambhir, who was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in February last year in connection with the coal smuggling case, has approached the Calcutta high court to allow her to appear in Kolkata rather than Delhi.
The news of ED summons comes a day after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee complimented Abhishek Banerjee, who is also her nephew, for delivering a good speech at the TMC youth wing event and wondered if he will be summoned by a central agency tomorrow. The remark was seen to underline her party’s oft-repeated accusation that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power at the Centre, uses central agencies to target TMC leaders.
“Abhishek Banerjee gave a good speech today. I hope not he is summoned (by a central agency) tomorrow. He and his wife were summoned earlier. Now I suppose the central agencies will summon his two-year-old child too. The next time they call, take your two-year-old child with you. They should see the child from now and know how strong he is,” she said at the same event on Monday.
{{/usCountry}}“Abhishek Banerjee gave a good speech today. I hope not he is summoned (by a central agency) tomorrow. He and his wife were summoned earlier. Now I suppose the central agencies will summon his two-year-old child too. The next time they call, take your two-year-old child with you. They should see the child from now and know how strong he is,” she said at the same event on Monday.
{{/usCountry}}To be sure, when Abhishek’s wife Rujira Banerjee was summoned by ED in Kolkata, she appeared for questioning with her son. She was then grilled for about six hours.
Abhishek Banerjee has been questioned by ED twice in Delhi in March this year. Rujira was also summoned to ED’s Delhi office but she requested that she be summoned to the agency’s Delhi office. When the agency declined, Rujira later petitioned the Supreme Court, which ordered ED in May, to question the couple at its Kolkata office. The top court also instructed the West Bengal government to deploy adequate personnel for the security of ED officials.
CBI registered the
It is alleged that illegally mined coal, worth several thousand crores of rupees, have been sold in the black market over several years by a racket operating in the western parts of West Bengal where the Eastern Coalfields Limited operates several mines.
CBI registered the coal smuggling case in November 2020 but the prime suspect Anup Majhi approached the Calcutta high court, contending that the agency can’t probe the case since Banerjee has withdrawn general consent to CBI in 2018. In February 2021, the Calcutta high court allowed CBI to probe the case.
ED, which does not need a state’s consent to operate, registered a money laundering probe on the basis of the first information report (FIR) filed by CBI in 2020.
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