The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected a plea by Trinamul’s all-India general secretary and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira, challenging the summons to them by the Enforcement Directorate and also to allow them to depose in Calcutta in a coal mining scam.

Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar rejected the plea, a day after the BJP swept the polls across four states.

On Friday while talking to newspersons at the state Assembly after the presentation of the Bengal budget for the 2022-23 fiscal, Mamata had commented that the BJP was winning with the help of central agencies. It could not be confirmed whether Mamata’s remarks, which she has iterated several times in the past, was made in connection with the Delhi high court order.

The ED has accused Abhishek of being involved in illegal coal mining trade to the tune of Rs 1,300 crore. It was after his deposition before the ED in September that Abhishek had fired the first salvo against the Congress.

The couple was also unhappy with the ED summons to them becoming public before reaching them and accused the ED of using its powers with mala-fide intentions.

The single bench of the high court, while rejecting the plea, argued that under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, not only could summons be issued to an witnesses but also ensure their attendance.

Trinamul sources said the party was keeping a close watch on the developments, as several of its leaders have had brushes with central agencies in the near past. A section of Trinamul leaders is worried that the BJP, after its emphatic win in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere, would try to utilise the agencies under the central government to either arrest leaders or force them to switch camps.

“Bengal is one of the few states where the BJP had put all its might but still could not muster enough MLAs to form the government. It even engineered splits and defections in our party to get candidates, since they don’t have enough numbers,” alleged a Trinamul leader.

After the 2021 Assembly polls in which Mamata returned for a third-time as chief minister, though she herself lost in Nandigram, the Trinamul has been doing the same with the BJP by poaching its legislators. Earlier this week, a BJP dissident, Joy Prakash Majumdar, who was suspended from the party, joined the Trinamul.

Immediately after the government took oath in Bengal, two ministers, the late Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamul lawmaker Madan Mitra and former mayor of Calcutta from Trinamul Sovan Chatterjee, who had switched to the BJP briefly, were arrested in connection with the Narada bribery sting operation. All four were granted bail. Mukherjee, however, passed away last year.

“It is just a matter of time before the case comes up for hearing again. There are several other leaders seen in the Narada bribery sting operation. They would not be spared. BJP has zero tolerance for corruption,” said a BJP leader.

One of the leaders seen in the Narada tapes, Mukul Roy had escaped being named in the chargesheet as he had joined the BJP. Roy switched to the Trinamul after becoming an MLA last year.