New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate Trinamool Congress leader and Member of Parliament Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira in Kolkata, instead of Delhi, in a money-laundering probe linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal.
The top court also said it would not tolerate any kind of “obstruction and interference by the state machinery” if the ED questioned Banerjee and his wife in Kolkata.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, had moved the apex court requesting interrogation in Kolkata and not Delhi where the central agency is based.
The ED had argued that its officers had earlier been “gheraoed” in Kolkata and that Banerjee was politically “influential” in the state.
The Banerjees are being probed by the central agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. ED filed the case on the basis of an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to the Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in and around Asansol.
Local coal operative Anup Majhi alias Lala is alleged to be the prime suspect in the case.
Also read: SC directs ED to interrogate TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, his wife in Kolkata