CBI serves notice on TMC MP’s wife, kin before polls
5-member team raids Abhishek Banerjee’s house in connection with coal smuggling case; MP says won’t be cowed down
KOLKATA : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday visited the south Kolkata residence of Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha member and chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee to serve notice to his wife for questioning in connection with a coal smuggling case. The agency has also summoned Abhishek Banerjee’s sister-inlaw, Maneka Gambhir, for questioning in the case.
His wife, Rujira Banerjee, was not in the house when the fivemember CBI team arrived around 2pm, according to people aware of the developments.
The notice, served under Section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), said a CBI team would come to Banerjee’s residence and question his wife at 3pm on Sunday.
At 4.19pm, Abhishek Banerjee tweeted a photo of the notice that CBI additional superintendent of police Umesh Kumar left at his residence. “At 2 pm today, the CBI served a notice in the name of my wife. We have full faith in the law of the land. However, if they think they can use these ploys to intimidate us, they are mistaken. We are not the ones who would ever be cowed down,” he wrote in the tweet.
While Banerjee’s wife Rujira is yet to respond to the CBI summons, his sister-in-law has agreed to join the CBI investigation on Monday.
The case, registered on November 27 last year, pertains to the theft of coal from the mines of Eastern Coalfields Ltd.
“A CBI team did go Abhishek’s home but they could not serve any notice. The team went back. The officers said they would come again. It is known that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will try to scare us before the polls. We are not worried,” said TMC Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy.
Assembly elections in the state are due to be held in March- April.
“This is part of a well-prepared script. The entire BJP leadership has targeted the chief minister and Abhishek Banerjee. If the CBI is so keen in cracking cases why doesn’t it arrest BJP leader Mukul Roy in the Narada case or Suvendu Adhikari in the Saradha chit fund case. Both are suspects,” said TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said: “The CBI probe will unearth the involvement of more TMC leaders in different scams. The entire state knows that ruling party leaders are involved in the coal scam.”
On December 31 last year, the CBI raided three residences of businessman and TMC’s youth front general secretary Vinay Mishra in connection with the coal smuggling case. Mishra is missing since then and has been declared an absconder by the agency. Another prime suspect, Anup Majhi, alias Lala, is also absconding.
The notice to Banerjee’s family members from the central agency came a day before a court in Kolkata is due to hear a defamation case filed by him against Union home minister Amit Shah.