The Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing the money trail of alleged coal pilferage in Bengal has summoned Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee for a fresh round of questioning on September 2, a day after he and Mamata Banerjee publicly predicted the possibility of the central agencies going on an overdrive.
Abhishek has been asked to present himself before a team of interrogators, some of whom would be flying down from the ED headquarters in Delhi, at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake on Friday.
The central investigating agency had questioned the Diamond Harbour MP at its headquarters for close to eight hours in March. This time, Abhishek will be questioned in Calcutta. The Supreme Court had instructed the ED, following a plea from Abhishek, in May that the central agency could question the MP and his wife, Rujira, in Calcutta instead of Delhi.
“In keeping with the Supreme Court order, we have already informed the police authorities in Bengal about the proposed questioning of Abhishek on Friday in our Salt Lake office so that adequate security arrangements are made,” said an ED official.
The summons to the 34-year-old MP came within 24 hours of the chief minister’s forecast during her address at a Mayo Road rally on Monday. Mamata had said her nephew could be targeted by central agencies because he had spoken well at the event.
“He has been served notices before this, his wife too. Next, quite possibly, their two-year-old (younger) child would get a notice. When they call you (Abhishek), take the kid along, so that they know what kind of strength the future holds,” Mamata had said.
Abhishek’s wife had met ED officials in June and faced a questioning session for over six hours. Rujira had turned up at the Salt Lake office of the ED cradling the child Mamata mentioned.
At the Mayo Road rally, Abhishek too had predicted: “Now that we are having this mega rally, I can give in writing that they will do something in four-five days.”
On Tuesday, he tweeted a news report citing NCRB data about how Calcutta is the nation’s safest city — while Delhi is the most unsafe — and wrote, referencing a Tricolour controversy over Jay Shah during a cricket match: “HM@AmitShah has a dual task at hand: To teach his son about Nationalism at home and sort the police under his ministry. The abysmal crime rates of Delhi have us all in shock.”
“He should take lessons from the Bengal Model of Governance instead of playing puppeteer with @dir_ed (the ED’s official Twitter handle),” he added.
Trinamul state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said the BJP’s focus on Abhishek had remained unwavering for years. “He remains a target for the BJP because he is a thorn in the flesh for them. The BJP has let loose the ED and the CBI for a while now. Has anything come out of it? They can’t fight him politically, hence they are getting their agencies to hound him. Because they cannot handle him, they remain jealous of him and are busy disturbing even his family members,” said Ghosh.
“He will fight these false claims and come out on top. The law will take its course, and he won’t be scared of these agencies,” he added.ED officials, while evading questions about the timing of Abhishek’s interrogation, claimed they had collected certain leads after going through bank details of Vikash Mishra, the arrested brother of the alleged kingpin, Vinay Mishra, and wanted to crosscheck them with Abhishek.
The central investigating agency had earlier claimed the Mishra brothers had received “proceeds of crime worth Rs 730 crore on behalf of some influential persons and for themselves” in this case involving an estimated amount of Rs 1,352 crore.
Both Abhishek and his wife have denied involvement in the alleged coal pilferage scam. The MP has blamed the Centre’s discriminatory politics against the Opposition.
Besides Abhishek, the central agency also summoned Maneka Gambhir, his sister-in-law, to appear for a round of questioning at its headquarters in Delhi on September 5.
Gambhir had challenged the ED’s move to question her in Delhi and approached Calcutta High Court. Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya passed an order during the day, directing the agency to question Gambhir in Calcutta instead of Delhi, and not to take any coercive steps against her for five weeks — till the next hearing of the case.
