TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee and his wife will reach Delhi on Sunday for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case related to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal, sources told News18. Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary and his wife Rujira Banerjee will face the ED’s interrogation as per the schedule on March 21 and 22.
Sources close to Abhishek Banerjee confirmed that the couple will be interrogated as per the law. Banerjee was questioned by the ED for over eight hours after the Bengal assembly elections in September last year. The couple had sought a direction from the court to ED that they should not be called to appear in Delhi as they are residents of West Bengal.
The Delhi High Court on March 11 dismissed the couple’s plea challenging the summons asking them to appear before the ED.
The TMC has described the summons as “political vendetta”. State Education Minister Bratya Basu said, “Abhishek Banerjee has been targeted by the BJP. “They are harassing her to bring down Mamata Banerjee and Bengal. The BJP will have to pay the price for their political vendetta later,” he said.
Party insiders have also said that after the assembly election results of Uttar Pradesh and four other states, the matter has come to the fore because of BJP’s “politics” and alleged use of state agency.
In this case, the ED had interrogated both Abhishek Banerjee and his wife separately. However, after an eight-hour long interrogation, Abhishek Banerjee declared that he would abide by the law of the land but would not stop fighting against the BJP.
The BJP has denied the allegations of ‘politics’ being played in the matter. The saffron party said that since the Delhi High Court had dismissed Banerjee’s plea, the ED should have summoned it. “It has nothing to do with politics,” he said.
Apart from Abhishek Banerjee and his wife, his close aides including his PA and others have also been questioned.
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