The Enforcement Directorate ( ED) has issued summons to Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to appear for questioning in the coal pilferage scam, officials said on Tuesday.
The agency asked the Diamond Harbour MP to appear at its Kolkata office on September 2.
Both Mr. Banerjee and party chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Monday expressed apprehension that summons might be issued by Central investigating agencies to key leaders of the party.
The Trinamool Congress, in a series of tweets on Tuesday, targeted the BJP and the Central agency. “After every successful show of AITC’s organisational strength, @BJP4India gets rattled into action. Our leaders are being summoned by the @dir_ed yet again. This shameful attempt to cow us down will not work! Our integrity will shine through your slander!” the Trinamool tweeted from its official handle.
The ruling party in West Bengal also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of being “vengeful” and “petty”.
“Astounding how the @dir_ed is always BJP-fied! Mr PM, we’re wondering what makes you SO VENGEFUL, SO PETTY? Unable to accept the love that people have for the entire Trinamool Congress family, you send ED after our leaders, as soon as BENGAL REJECTS YOU. Give it up already!” it added.
Highlighting the crime statistics of Delhi, Mr. Banerjee also targeted Union Home Minister Amit Shah and said that he should take lessons from the Bengal model of governance. “...The abysmal crime rates of Delhi have us all in shock. He should take lessons from the Bengal Model of Governance instead of playing puppeteer with @dir_ed.,” Mr. Banerjee tweeted.
Addressing a gathering of the party’s student wing, Ms. Banerjee had said, “Abhishek has made a good speech today. It can happen that they can send him a notice tomorrow.”
Mr. Banerjee had also spoken on similar lines and said that after the mega gathering, something major would happen in the next few days as the BJP cannot fight the Trinamool politically and was using Central investigation agencies.
The ED has also issued summons to Mr. Banerjee’s sister-in-law Monica Gambhir to appear for questioning in the same case on September 5. Ms. Gambhir was asked to appear at the agency’s New Delhi office.
However, Mr. Gambhir approached the Calcutta High Court seeking that she may be allowed to appear before the agency in Kolkata. The High Court accepted Ms. Gambir’s prayer.
In July, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a chargesheet in the coal pilferage scam against 41 persons, accusing them of fraudulently misappropriating coal from the coal reserve of leasehold areas under the dominion of ECL (Eastern Coalfields Ltd.) and also from the coal stock parked in the Railway sidings for sale and supply. Mr. Banerjee was not named in the chargesheet which pressed charges against former general managers, former chief managers, former security and other officials of ECL.
The summons by the ED also comes at a time when the Trinamool has been hit by allegations of corruption after the arrest of two party heavyweights — former secretary general Partha Chatterjee in a recruitment scam and Anubrata Mondal in a cattle smuggling scam.
