Bengal Coal Scam: ED Summons TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee Again On March 29

Earlier, the TMC national general secretary and nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was questioned by ED officials for about eight hours on Monday

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday summoned Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee to appear before it on March 29 in connection with a money laundering case related to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal.

Earlier, the TMC national general secretary and nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was questioned by ED officials for about eight hours on Monday (March 21). He was first interrogated by the agency in September last year.

According to ED officials, the agency will continue to record the statement of Banerjee in the case lodged under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

While leaving the ED office on Monday, Banerjee said that he was a ‘law-abiding citizen’ and hence, had ‘cooperated’ in the investigation.

He also alleged that the probe agencies such as the ED, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax department are being used by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to ‘scare the opposition and its political personalities’.

The TMC MP also filed a special leave petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the ED summons asking him to appear before the agency in Delhi.

Notably, the last ED summons against Banerjee and his wife Rujira was issued after the Delhi High Court on March 11 dismissed a petition moved by the couple that challenged the notices asking them to appear before the agency in Delhi instead of Kolkata.

The agency had lodged a case on the basis of a November 2020 FIR registered by the CBI that alleged a multi-crore-rupee coal scam related to Eastern Coalfields Limited mines in West Bengal's Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol. Local coal operator Anup Majhi, alias Lala, is the prime suspect in the case.

According to the ED, Banerjee was a beneficiary of the funds obtained from this illegal trade.

The agency has so far made two arrests - Vikas Mishra, the brother of TMC's youth wing leader Vinay Mishra, who is stated to have left the country and renounced his Indian citizenship, and former inspector in-charge of the Bankura police station Ashok Kumar Mishra.