The Delhi High Court on Monday granted temporary exemption to Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira Banerjee from appearing in a trial court in a money laundering case related to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal. The trial court in Delhi had directed him to appear in person on October 12.
The high court said it would hear the petition filed by Rujira Banerjee challenging the ED’s complaint filed in the matter on October 29, the trial court’s order taking cognizance of that complaint and subsequent summons to her appearance.
Justice Yogesh Khanna granted brief exemption to Rujira Banerjee from personal appearance after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Enforcement Directorate, urged the court to consider her plea for hearing after Dussehra vacation.
The Solicitor General said that till then, the woman client (Rujira) cannot appear in person. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Rujira Banerjee, prayed that her client be allowed to appear in the trial court through her counsel. List on 29 October. Meanwhile, the petitioner will be produced before the trial court through counsel, the judge ordered.
On September 30, when she appeared virtually in connection with the complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma directed her appearance on October 12, exempting her from personal appearance for the day.
Rujira Banerjee has argued that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) complaint against her is arbitrary, false, troubling and an abuse of the process of law.
The petition states that the complaint has been filed to harass him and his family and create prejudice. Mere perusal of the impugned complaint confirms that the Respondent Agency (ED) falsely claimed that the petitioner did not comply with her illegal summons (issued by the ED)… due to the fact that she was the daughter of two young children. Mother and resident of Kolkata. The petitioner has repeatedly requested that he be examined at his residence in Kolkata.
“The fact that the petitioner was in constant dialogue with the respondent in respect of the above summons clearly shows that there was no intention on the part of the petitioner to disobey him,” the plea said. has gone.
It further argued that the trial court took cognizance and issued summons on the complaint mechanically and without brain. ld CMM failed to appreciate that not only were the notices illegal and over jurisdiction, but also the mode of service, i.e. email to a third party, in the first instance on 18.08. cannot be done. held against the petitioner, it said.
The couple has already approached the High Court to quash the summons issued to them by the ED for questioning in the case. On September 21, the court had refused to grant any interim relief in relation to the summons of the ED.
The 33-year-old MP, who is the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, represents the Diamond Harbor seat in the Lok Sabha and is the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The ED registered the case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on the basis of a November 2020 FIR lodged by the CBI, alleging the multi-crore coal theft scam related to the mines of Eastern Coalfields Limited in Kunustoria and Kajora areas of the state. . and around Asansol.
Local coal operator Anoop Manjhi alias Lala is being told as the main suspect in this case. The ED had earlier claimed that Abhishek Banerjee was the beneficiary of the money received from this illegal business. He has denied all the allegations.
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