The Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira to travel to Dubai for treatment of their eye ailment.
Banerjee had approached the court alleging that the Enforcement Directorate had refused to allow her to go abroad for treatment. The agency had in March questioned Abhishek Banerjee in connection with the coal smuggling scam in West Bengal.
The 34-year-old Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary represents the Diamond Harbor constituency in the Lok Sabha.
In his appeal before the High Court, the MP had said that he had requested the central agency to spare him from questioning for the time being as he would have to go abroad for treatment. According to reports, Banerjee wanted to apologize from June 3 to 10.
However, ED officials had reportedly objected to the proposal. The agency reportedly told the court that Banerjee may try to meet Vinay Mishra, who is believed to be in Dubai. Vinay Mishra is a former youth wing leader of TMC who is said to have left the country sometime back and renounced his Indian citizenship.
So far, Vinay’s brother Vikas Mishra and former in-charge of Bankura police station, Inspector Ashok Kumar Mishra have been arrested in the case.
Allowing Banerjee to go to Dubai, Judge Bibek Choudhary said the TMC leader was not an accused in the FIR and was cooperating with the ED.
The ED has registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on the basis of a November 2020 FIR lodged by the CBI, alleging coal theft of crores of rupees related to mines of Eastern Coalfields Limited in Kunustoria and Kajora areas of the state in and around Asansol. went.
The ED has claimed that the MP was the beneficiary of the money received from this illegal trade.
The Trinamool Congress leader had recently made headlines for his criticism of the judiciary. “I feel bad to say that some members of the judiciary are acting as agents and at the behest of others. They are ordering the CBI’s decision in petty cases. They are putting a stop to murder cases. This is unimaginable,” Banerjee had said at a public rally in Haldia on May 28.
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