The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee and his spouse for questioning in a money laundering case connected to an alleged coal rip-off withinside the state, officers stated on Saturday.
Abhishek Banerjee, 33, represents the Diamond Harbour seat in Lok Sabha and is the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
He has been summoned to appear before the investigating officer of the case in New Delhi on September 6, even as his spouse Mrs Rujira has been despatched a comparable summons below the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for September 1.
Mrs Rujira had earlier been grilled with the aid of using the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) withinside the case.
Some Indian Police Service (IPS) officials and an attorney connected to Abhishek Banerjee have also been summoned to seem on different dates subsequent month withinside the same case, the officers stated.
This case registered below criminal sections of the PMLA, was filed with the aid of using the ED after analyzing a November 2020 FIR of the CBI that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam associated with Eastern Coalfields Ltd. mines withinside the state's Kunustoria and Kajora regions in and around Asansol.
A charge sheet was also filed by the ED in May this year.
Quoting the recorded statement of an unidentified "close associate" of Mr Majhi, the ED had earlier alleged that prime suspect Mr Majhi had been running his "illegal coal mining business smoothly by managing senior functionaries of the political party of West Bengal though Inspector Mr Mishra." The statement of this unidentified "witness" furnished by the ED in the remand note stated that "it is known fact that Vinay Mishra collected money from illegal coal mining of Mr Majhi and his associates for his closely associated political boss in the present ruling party; that Vinay Mishra is the youth leader of TMC and he is very close to Abhishek Banerjee and that he (Vinay Mishra) is the eyes and ears of Abhishek Banerjee." The agency had claimed that documents seized by it show that "Mr Majhi assisted in transferring substantial funds derived from the proceeds of crime to Shri Abhishek Banerjee's close relatives (wife and sister-in-law) in London and Thailand."