Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has been asked to appear at Enforcement Directorate’s Kolkata office on 2 September
Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee. PTI
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), on Tuesday, issued a summons to Trinamool Congress’ national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee for questioning in connection with its probe into the ongoing coal scam case.
Abhishek, nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been asked to appear at its Kolkata office on 2 September (Friday) morning.
“We have summoned Abhishek Banerjee to appear before our sleuths here (in Kolkata). Our officers from New Delhi will come to interrogate him,” news agency PTI quoted senior ED officer as saying.
In March, Abhishek had appeared before the ED office in the New Delhi in connection with the case.
The ED filed a case under the provisions of the PMLA based on a November 2020 FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields Limited mines in the West Bengal’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol.
The ED claimed that Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee was a beneficiary of funds obtained from this illegal trade.
The CBI in the case registered in 2020 alleged that illegally mined coal, worth several thousand crores of rupees, were sold in the black market over several years by a racket operating in the western parts of the state where the Eastern Coalfields Limited runs several mines.
According to a report by Hindustan Times, youth leader of Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress Anup Majhi is a prime accused in the case. Local coal operator Anup Majhi is a prime suspect in the case and is allegedly a close associate of Abhishek.
The CBI started the probe in the coal smuggling case, while the ED began a parallel investigation. In February last year, a CBI team visited Abhishek Banerjee’s house and summoned his wife Rujira and his sister-in-law Menaka Gambhir over an alleged connection in the case.
With inputs from agencies
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