Abhishek Banerjee grilled by ED, Suvendu gets relief from court

Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 6

Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Abhishek Banerjee faced marathon grilling by personnel of Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its probe related to alleged money laundering worth Rs1,352 crore generated from illegal coal mining in West Bengal on Monday.

On the other hand Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, and principal political foe of Banerjee, had a breezy day with the high court granting him relief in multiple cases including the 2018 unnatural death case of one of his security staff.

Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, went inside the ED’s Delhi office at Jam Nagar House at around 11 am and came out at around 8 pm. He told reporters that he was questioned non-stop for around eight hours.

Banerjee, who told reporters in the morning before entering the ED office that as a citizen it was his duty to cooperate in the probe, was quite flustered when he emerged from the ED office after long hours of interrogation. He said he did not blame the ED officers for grilling him because they were doing so under instruction from the political leadership.

Without naming Suvendu Adhikari, Banerjee said people seen accepting money in sting video footage were going scot free while BJP’s political opponents were being harassed.

“I have been telling BJP from day one that if they have any proof against me, it should be made public, Banerjee said.

The TMC leader added that unlike other political parties, TMC cannot be intimidated by using ED, CBI, Income Tax and other agencies.

“No mai ka lal has guts to intimidate TMC. We will take on the BJP alone and defeat them in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections”, Banerjee said.

Banerjee was summoned for questioned by ED about his association with the kingpin of illegal mining, Anup Majhi, as well as the illicit funds allegedly transferred to his family members, sources said.

Abhishek’s wife Rujira was also summoned by the ED to Delhi but she sought to be questioned at her residence in Kolkata due to the Covid-19 situation. Rujira was earlier questioned by CBI in her Kolkata residence in connection with the case.

Adhikari was asked by the Criminal Investigation Department of West Bengal Police to appear before it today in a 2018 case of unnatural death of one of his security staff, which is now being probed as a possible murder case. Adhikari sent an email in the morning saying he could not come as he had several political programmes to attend during the day.

The Calcutta High Court later stayed the probe into the unnatural death complaint registered in Contai. It also stayed another case related to a political clash at Nandigram and yet another case of gold chain snatching at Panskura involving Adhikari.

The court also noted that Adhikari had been summoned in the security staff death case three years after the incident.