CBI team questions TMC MP’S wife
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers questioned Rujira Banerjee, wife of Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, in connection with a multi-crore coal smuggling case on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who happens to be the aunt of Abhishek Banerjee, visited his house.
The CBI team, including two woman officers, reached the house moments after the CM left. According to CBI officials privy to the development, Rujira was questioned for around an hour by the CBI team and the entire proceedings were captured on video. The questioning took place a day after the central agency questioned Menaka Gambhir, Rujira’s sister, in connection with the same case.
CBI officials haven’t ruled out the possibility of questioning the two sisters again. They said the statements of Rujira Banerjee and Menaka Gambhir were being matched. “The statements given by Rujira Banerjee and Menaka Gambhir would be matched and verified before further steps are taken,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
CBI officials said that at least two bank accounts, one of a London-based bank and another of a Bangkok-based bank, had come under scanner; transactions worth huge amounts of money had been done using the accounts, they said.
The CBI had on Sunday visited the residence of Abhishek Banerjee to serve notice to his wife for questioning. The agency had also summoned Banerjee’s sister-in-law for questioning in the case. On Monday, Rujira Banerjee responded to the CBI and sent a letter saying: “Though I am unaware of the reason for me being called for questioning on 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.”
On Sunday evening, Abhishek Banerjee tweeted a photo of the notice the CBI left at his residence. “...if they think they can use these ploys to intimidate us, they are mistaken,” he wrote.
CM Banerjee said she was not intimidated by anyone, adding that “a tiger cub is not scared of fighting cats and rats”.
The episode triggered another round of sparring between the BJP and the TMC ahead of crucial assembly polls. “Bhaipo (nephew) will now land in jail. More clinching evidence would surface once the diary of Anup Majhi (prime accused of the coal smuggling case) comes out,” said Suvendu Adhikari, former TMC heavyweight who has joined the BJP. “...They are dragging family members now {into cases}. We are politicians and can fight..,” said Firhad Hakim, a state minister.
Tamil Nadu’s deputy chief minister and state finance minister, O Panneerselvam, on Tuesday presented a revenue deficit interim budget that blamed the Central government for fall in revenue and talked up the achievements of the government over the past five years.
This is the last budget of AIADMK-LED state government as the state heads for assembly polls in April- May. The party has partnered with the Bharatiya Janata Party, which leads the Union government to contest the election.
Tamil Nadu’s debt was ₹4.87 lakh crore as on March 31, 2020. Since the state was affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this is likely to go up to ₹5.7 lakh crore by the end of March 31. State finance secretary S Krishnan in a post-budget conference said that the debt is within permissible limits. Panneerselvam’s ruling AIADMK blamed the central government led by their ally the BJP for delaying payments to the state. The deputy CM also said that the share of central taxes for Tamil Nadu which was ₹32,849.34 crore in 2020-21’s budget has been reduced to ₹23,039.46 crore in the revised estimates 2020-21. To be sure, revenue suffered in the course of the current fiscal year on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Panneerselvam cited the 15th Finance Commission’s report which noted that there is an increasing trend of levying
cesses and surcharges by the Central Government which grew from 10.4% in 2011-12 to 20.3% in the received estimates 2019-20. He said the cesses do not form part of the divisible pool of taxes.
The commission “has not made any categorical recommendation of merging cesses and surcharges in the basic rate of tax or of including them in the divisible pool as demanded by the many States including Tamil Nadu, which is very disappointing,” Panneerselvam said, reiterating his appeal. The finance minister also specified that the Commission has recommended state specific grants of ₹4,784 crore as performance-based incentives to Tamil Nadu for specific sectors including health, education and judiciary. Following Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s union budget presentation on the same, he urged the centre “not to utilise the 15th Finance Commission recommended grants to substitute their share of funding for Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored schemes. This would be a major deviation from past practice.”
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