West Bengal Police on Tuesday filed an FIR against several Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers, including the one who is heading the central probe agency’s ongoing probe in the coal smuggling case in the state. The name of the officer is Umesh Kumar.
The FIR has been filed at the Bishnupur Police Station, under Diamond Harbour sub-division in South 24-Parganas district. A special team of Diamond Harbour district police has started a probe in the matter.
Recently, a resident of Diamond Harbour filed a complaint at the local police station alleging that he along with some other people were threatened by the CBI sleuths in the name of interrogation pertaining to the coal-scam investigation. The complainant also alleged that CBI sleuths had been putting pressure on them to give statements according to their instructions and also record those statements. He named one Umesh Kumar in the complaint.
It is learnt that Mr Kumar was a part of the CBI team, which went to the residence of Trinamul Congress’ national general secretary and the party MP Abhishek Banerjee’s residence in South Kolkata on June 14 this year to interrogate his wife Rujira Narula Banerjee in connection with the coal scam. Incidentally, Abhishek, the nephew of Mamata Banerjee, is the party MP from Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency.
State police sources said that they have started the preliminary investigation in the matter and if necessary, they will interact with the CBI officers named in the case including Umesh Kumar.
Besides CBI, Enforcement Directorate is also conducting a parallel probe in the coal smuggling case in West Bengal. Abhishek himself has faced questioning from both these agencies in this connection.