Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to travel to Dubai for eye treatment, along with his wife Rujira Narula.

The vacation bench of Justice Bibek Chaudhuri granted relief to the Trinamul Congress’s Diamond Harbour MP, imposing an interim stay on the Enforcement Directorate’s bar on his travel aboard.

The judge, however, said Abhishek would have to submit details of his air ticket, contact number, address of stay abroad, and the name and contact number of the hospital in Dubai to the ED before leaving India.

“Permission for going abroad to the petitioner and his wife is granted on humanitarian grounds,” the judgement read.

The ED had issued a notice restraining Abhishek from going to Dubai at a time when the process for his interrogation was going on in connection with cattle and coal smuggling cases.

In a letter to the ED earlier, Abhishek had asked the agency not to call him for interrogation between June 3 and 10 as he would have to go to Dubai for eye treatment. In response, the ED asked Abhishek not to leave the country.

Challenging the ED’s directive, Abhishek moved the vacation bench of the high court.

In 2016, Abhishek had been seriously injured in an accident while returning from a Trinamul Congress programme. His left eye was badly damaged in the accident. He makes frequent trips to Dubai for treatment of his injured eye.

Opposing Abhishek’s prayer, the ED counsel M.V. Raju submitted before the court that the key accused in the cattle and coal smuggling case, Binay Mishra, was absconding and according to information, he was in Dubai.

“It is apprehended that Banerjee will not return to the country, if he was allowed to go to Dubai,” Raju told the court

Then, the judge told the ED counsel: “Why is your client not arresting Mishra if it has definite information that he is in Dubai?”

The lawyers replied that the process for the arrest was going on.

Abhishek’s counsel Saptangshu Basu said: “My client has been cooperating with the ED. He has been appearing before the ED for interrogation. The ED cannot prevent my client from going to Dubai for treatment. He can go anywhere for his treatment — Dubai or Singapore.”

Calcutta High Court’s order allowing Abhishek to visit Dubai comes shortly after he won a reprieve in the Supreme Court on the ED’s directive to question him and his wife Rujira in Delhi in connection with alleged money laundering offences.

The apex court gave relief to Abhishek when it asked the ED to question the Diamond Harbour MP and his wife in Calcutta instead of Delhi.

The apex court assured the ED that it would direct Calcutta police to ensure safe passage of the central officials, and the couple to extend necessary cooperation in the investigation after the agency expressed apprehension of a repeat of the fracas involving the CBI and the Bengal government in February 2019 after it sought to question then police commissioner Rajeev Kumar.