Trinamool MP’s wife asks CBI to send team to her residence today

KOLKATA: Rujira Banerjee, the wife of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee, Monday responded to the CBI’s summons in the alleged coal pilferage scam and asked the central agency to send its team to her residence for examination on Tuesday, officials said.

The CBI had on Sunday asked her to join the probe.

A team of CBI officials had visited the residence of Abhishek Banerjee, a nephew of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, on Sunday to deliver the summons but Rujira was not present. She responded to the summons on Monday and asked the CBI to visit her residence between 11 am and 3 pm on Tuesday.

“Though I am unaware of the reason for me being called for questioning or the subject matter of the investigation, you may visit my residence as per your convenience between 11 am and 3 pm tomorrow, i.e. 23 February, 2021,” she said in a letter to CBI.

“You are requested to kindly inform me your schedule.”

Meanwhile, a CBI team visited the residence of Abhishek’s sister-in-law Menaka Gambhir in Kolkata on Monday to examine her in connection with the case, officials said. Two woman officers of CBI examined Gambhir for nearly three hours at her residence after a notice was served to her on Sunday, they said. The officers of CBI’s anti-corruption branch sought to ascertain her financial accounts, sources said. Gambhir is Rujira’s sister.

The CBI had registered an FIR in November last year against the alleged kingpin of the pilferage racket Manjhi alias Lala, ECL General Managers Amit Kumar Dhar (of then Kunustoria area now Pandaveswar area) and Jayesh Chandra Rai (Kajora area), besides ECL Chief of Security Tanmay Das, Area Security Inspector, Kunustoria Dhananjay Rai and SSI and security in-charge Kajor area Debashish Mukherjee.