E-Paper
TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee, wife approach Supreme Court against ED summons
Abhishek Banerjee challenged the September 10, 2021 summons issued by ED on the ground that he and his wife should not be required to appear in New Delhi but in their hometown or place of domicile at Kolkata.
NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira on Monday approached the Supreme Court against the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to question them in connection with a money laundering case in Delhi.
The appeal has been filed against an order passed by the Delhi high court on March 11 dismissing their petition. Banerjee was questioned by ED on Monday for nine hours.
In their plea filed through advocate Sunil Fernandes, the Trinamool Congress general secretary and his wife said that the high court order failed to take note of the fact that he is an important opposition leader.
“The order (by the high court) chooses to ignore the clear uncontroverted facts, of which it ought to have taken judicial notice, that the petitioner (Abhishek Banerjee) is an important opposition leader….the party to which the petitioner no. 1 belonged, comprehensively trounced the political party at power in the Centre, thereby giving justifiable cause to “target” and “fix” the Petitioner No.1, by misusing the central investigation agencies,” the petition said.
Banerjee challenged the September 10, 2021 summons issued by ED on the ground that he and his wife should not be required to appear in New Delhi but in their hometown or place of domicile at Kolkata.
Drawing a comparison between Section 50 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Section 160 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the petition said, “Since this section (Section 50) does not provide that a witness must be examined in his/her local area as Section 160 CrPC does, the impugned order (of the high court) holds that the ED is justified in law, in summoning the petitioners to their office in New Delhi for investigation rather than conducting the said investigation at their Kolkata office.”
Banerjee said in his petition that a question of law to be considered is whether the ED can assume a “pan-India jurisdiction” to summon any person, at any place of their choice in utter derogation of the fundamental rights of the witness/accused persons, principles of fair play and expeditious investigation and the provisions of the CrPC and PMLA.
