Kolkata, June 5 (). The Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the multi-crore coal smuggling case in West Bengal, on Monday issued summons to Trinamool Congress National General Secretary and Rujira Narula Banerjee, wife of the party’s Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee.
He has been asked to be present at the ED’s office at CGO Complex in Salt Lake on the northern outskirts of Kolkata on June 8 at 11 am.
On Monday morning, the immigration department at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata stopped Rujira and her two children from boarding a flight to Dubai, citing a lookout notice by the ED. The notice was issued to him soon after, sources said. ED has already questioned him in this regard.
The ED also summoned West Bengal Law Minister Moloy Ghatak on Monday in the coal smuggling case and asked him to appear at the central agency’s headquarters in New Delhi on June 19.
ED sources said that earlier Ghatak had twice deferred his summons on the ground that he was summoned at short notice. That’s why this time the ED officials have sent summons giving them about two weeks time.
ED Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra was in Kolkata last week and held meetings with top officials of the central agency as well as legal experts representing the agency in court.
Mishra gave some instructions to the officials about the next steps in the investigation of various corruption cases like teacher recruitment case, cattle smuggling case and coal smuggling case.
Observers are of the view that the agency’s spurt in activities soon after Mishra’s visit to Kolkata is intriguing and more exciting developments are expected in the days to come.
At the time of writing, it was not known whether Banerjee or Ghatak would appear for questioning. The political tussle has started regarding the summons.
The Trinamool Congress leadership has claimed that these developments are a reflection of political vendetta by the ruling party in the country. On the other hand, state BJP leaders termed the incident as part of the probe by central agencies.
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