The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira in a money laundering case which is linked to an alleged coal scam. ED sources said that both have been summoned for questioning in Delhi.
They further revealed that while Abhishek has been asked to appear before the Central agency’s investigating officer of the case on September 6, while Rujira has been asked to appear on September 1.
“Some others have also been summoned in relation to the case next month,” a senior ED official.
The case was filed by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after going through an FIT lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The FIR lodged in November, 2020 alleged a multi-crore coal scam related to the Eastern Coalfield related mines in the Kunustoria and Kajora areas near Asansol.
A local Anup Majhi alias Lala is the alleged prime accused in the case.
Reacting to the development, Abhishek said that the TMC is no longer confined to West Bengal and was starting to expand its organisation in other sates such as Tripura where BJP has started to lose ground.
“The BJP tried to capture West Bengal with outsiders and by trying to ruin the state’s culture and tradition. But it was trounced in the Assembly elections. I want to assure the people of Tripura that the TMC will fight for you till its last breath. If the BJP has guts, let it stop the TMC. The more they think they can stop the TMC by using the ED and the CBI, the more determined we will become in achieving our goals,” said Abhishek. He was speaking at a virtual rally on the foundation day of the TMC’s students’ wing the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad on Saturday.
He also said that within one and a half year the TMC will wrest Tripura from the BJP.
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