The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Trinamul Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira and her sister Menaka Gambhir to its New Delhi office for questioning on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, in connection with alleged coal smuggling in Bengal.

Abhishek, Trinamul’s national general secretary and the nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, was supposed to appear before ED officers in Delhi on Tuesday for questioning. The Diamond Harbour MP excused himself from the appearance citing personal problems and communicated the same to the ED through an email.

Abhishek, Rujira and Menaka had already faced the ED interrogation in the case.

“There are few loose ends which need to be stitched. We will record their answers during the questioning so that there is no misgiving about the replies in future,” said an officer.

Abhishek and his wife had earlier moved Delhi High Court against the ED’s summons to Delhi, stating that since both are residents of Bengal, they should not be summoned to the national capital by the agency. On March 11, the court dismissed their plea.

The MP had appeared for an eight-hour long questioning at the ED’s New Delhi office on March 21.

No relief for Anubrata

A division bench of Calcutta High Court headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava on Tuesday upheld a single-judge bench’s order that had rejected Birbhum Trinamul Congress president Anubrata Mondal’s prayer for a stay on the CBI’s summons in a cattle smuggling case.

A senior lawyer of the high court said: “To avoid the arrest by the CBI, Mondal may prefer an anticipatory bail from the court.”