Kolkata: Trinamool Congress National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s sister-in-law Maneka Gambhir reached the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Kolkata a little past midnight on Monday.
Maneka was served a notice on 10 September in the alleged coal scam investigation, and asked to be present at 12 am.
But when Maneka arrived at the probe agency’s office – notice in hand – she found it to be closed.
Later, the ED said the time 12 am had been erroneously put instead of 12 pm. The agency then served her a fresh notice — to appear 12 hours later. Maneka was questioned in the afternoon at the agency’s Kolkata office.
On Saturday evening, Abhishek Banerjee’s kin was stopped at the Kolkata international airport, from flying to Thailand. The immigration department denied her permission based on a look-out circular against her by the ED.
Maneka had earlier been questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same case.
The scam relates to the illegal mining and transportation of coal from land belonging to the government-run Eastern Coalfields Limited in the western part of the state.
Last week, Maneka moved the Calcutta High Court after the ED asked her to appear in New Delhi where the case was registered. During the hearing, the ED counsel said all the voluminous documents required during questioning were in Delhi.
The Calcutta High Court ordered the ED to interrogate Maneka Gambhir in Kolkata and bring the required documents to the city.
The ED also questioned Abhishek Banerjee – Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew – on 2 September for nearly eight hours in Kolkata and his wife Rujira Banerjee on 23 June in the alleged coal-smuggling investigation.
Abhishek told the media that this wasn’t a “coal scam or cattle scam but a home minister scam”, referencing the central government’s alleged interest in slapping cases on the Opposition.
The Trinamool Congress, however, has been under fire from both the CBI and the ED for various scams which has netted two top leaders in jail.
The ED arrested former West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee in July over the alleged school service recruitment scam after mountains of cash was found in the homes of his friend Arpita Mukherjee.
Last month, the CBI arrested Trinamool strongman Anubrata Mondal from his Birbhum home in connection with the alleged cattle-smuggling probe.
Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee has called these actions a “political vendetta” against her party men. On 8 September, while addressing a special session of the party in Kolkata, Banerjee said, “I want the BJP to misuse agencies even more… when the cases go to court, they won’t have any evidence to prove the allegations. They are targetting strong TMC leaders and getting them arrested to scare local leaders.”
Also read: Behind Bengal’s Rs 1,900-cr ‘coal scam’ story is Class 8 dropout who began as ‘petty coal thief’