The Enforcement Directorate probing the alleged money laundering case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) today quizzed the Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with multi-crore illegal mining and coal pilferage scam in the state.
The ED summoned Mr Banerjee and his wife Rujira Banerjee and asked them to appear before it on 21-22 March. Mr Banerjee arrived at the ED office at 11 am and was quizzed for five long hours, said sources. It is learnt that RD officers wanted to learn about his relations with Vinay Mishra, who was earlier arrested by the CBI.
ED sources said that the officers, armed with documents regarding the two foreign bank accounts under their scanner, quizzed the MP. A source in the know of things claimed that the Trinamul national general secretary was interrogated largely on the two foreign accounts, which the sleuths believed had some “abnormality” that was needed to be addressed by the MP himself as investigation into the scam revealed that a sizeable chunk of money had allegedly been parked in the two foreign accounts.
But before going to the ED office in New Delhi, Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Banerjee filed a case in the Supreme Court against Delhi High Court’s verdict of 11 March. Last year in September Abhisek Banerjee faced eight-hour interrogation by the ED officers in Delhi. The young MP had said then, “I’m not to be cowed down by ED. I’ll continue my fight against the BJP.”
Yesterday also before leaving for Delhi, Mr Banerjee had said, “The BJP cannot digest the defeat in West Bengal so they are using the agencies to harass me and malign the Trinamul Congress. Last year, the couple had filed a case in Delhi High Court that since the case is related to West Bengal, they need not be summoned in the Capital everytime for interrogation. But the Delhi High Court dismissed the case on 11 March.
Trinamul Congress termed the summons as “vendetta politics” by the ruling dispensation at the Centre to settle political scores. Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “It’s nothing but a political vendetta on the part of the BJP. But one day they will have to pay a price for this.” Samik Bhattacharya, the state BJP spokesperson said that if the MP had anything to say about the ED summons, he has the option to explore the legal recourse against the summons.