Mamata’s nephew appears before ED
Abhishek Banerjee, TMC MP and nephew of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here on Monday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal pilferage scam in the state, officials said.
The 33-year-old MP arrived at the office of the central agency at Jam Nagar house in central Delhi just before 11 AM.
“I am ready to face investigation...the agency officials are doing their work and I will cooperate with them,” he said.
The investigating officer of the case will record his statement under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), officials said.
Abhishek Banerjee represents the Diamond Harbour seat in the Lok Sabha and is the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The ED has filed a criminal case under the PMLA after studying a November, 2020 FIR of the CBI that alleged a multicrore coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in the state’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol.
Speaking to reporters at the
Kolkata airport on Sunday, the MP had said that he would get himself hanged if any central agency can prove his involvement in any illegal transaction. Local coal operative in West Bengal, Anup Majhi alias Lala, is alleged to be the prime suspect in the case.
The ED had claimed that Abhishek Banerjee was a beneficiary of funds obtained from this illegal trade.
His wife Rujira was also summoned by the agency in this case on September 1 but she did not appear citing the prevailing coronavirus situation and requested the agency to instead question her in Kolkata.
It is understood that the agency may grant her the relief.
Some Indian Police Service (IPS) officers and a law linked to Abhishek Bane have also been summone appear on different dates in month in the case.
Reacting to these s monses, Chief Minister Bane last week accused the Cent letting loose its agencies on nephew and claimed some ministers were working “h in glove” with the coal maf
The ED has arrested two ple in this case till now. On them is Vikas Mishra, brother of TMC youth w leader Vinay Mishra, wh stated to have left the cou sometime back and renounced his Indian citi ship. The second per arrested in the case early year is former Inspe in-charge of Bankura police tion Ashok Kumar Mishra.
The ED had earlier clai that the Mishra brot received “proceeds of cr worth ₹730 crore on beha some influential persons for themselves” in this involving an estimated am of ₹1,352 crore.
A “deep system” of poli patronage and a “well-oi machinery was used to braz carry out certain unlawful mining in West Bengal, th has claimed before a c while seeking the reman Inspector Mishra in April.