Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday for recording his statement in connection with the alleged illegal mining and pilferage of coal in West Bengal.
Mr. Banerjee reached the ED office around 11 a.m. and was questioned for about six hours. He later said that as a law-abiding citizen, he tried to answer all the queries of the investigating agency.
“We will not be cowed down. We will bow down before the people, not the people in power,” the Trinamool national general secretary said, alleging that he was being targeted as the BJP could not digest its defeat in the 2021 Assembly election in West Bengal.
Mr. Banerjee, who is the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said the two biggest allies of the BJP were “ the ED and the CBI” and the summons would make him more determined in his resolve to take on the BJP.
The Trinamool leader said summons had been issued to his wife Rujira Banerjee also. However, he informed the officials that she would not be able to appear as it was difficult for her, being the mother of a two-year-old, to travel to Delhi.
While the Trinamool leader was summoned by the ED in Delhi, the Kolkata police had issued summons to three ED officers probing the case. The officers did not appear before the police during the day.
Mr. Banerjee told journalists that he was the complainant in the police case related to an alleged audio conversation between a witness and an ED official, which had gone viral just before the Assembly election in West Bengal. References to him were made in the audio. Mr. Banerjee claimed that it was an attempt to malign him.
Earlier in the day, the lawyers representing Mr. Banerjee had approached the Supreme Court seeking relief from appearing before the probe agency, but the court did not take up the matter during the day. The petition is expected to be heard in the next few days.
Meanwhile, the ED move triggered a war of words between the Trinamool and the BJP leaders.
The Trinamool claimed that it was not a coincidence that Mr. Banerjee had been summoned for questioning just days after the BJP won Assembly elections in the four States. “Whoever says BJP does not have allies, the ED, CBI and other agencies are the faithful allies of the BJP,” Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev said.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said there were BJP leaders against whom there was evidence in public domain, who were named in a First Information Report [Narada sting videos] and were mentioned in the letter by Saradha chief Sudipta Sen [on the chitfund scam]. However, he said, they were not being questioned by the Central investigating agencies. Mr. Ghosh was referring to BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.
State BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said the BJP had nothing to do with the summons and that there were designated forums like courts which Mr. Banerjee could approach if he felt that the summons was “politically motivated”.
The ED probe is based on a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), alleging theft of coal from the Kunustoria and Kajora mines of the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) in Asansol.
The agency had earlier recorded Mr. Banerjee’s statement in the same matter last September.
