ED issues fresh summons to TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee’s kin after wrong notice calls her at midnight

PTI, Sep 12, 2022, 10:36 AM IST

The Enforcement Directorate has issued fresh summons to Maneka Gambhir, the sister-in-law of TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, for questioning in a money laundering case after it was found that the agency ”erroneously” issued her a notice for an appearance at 12:30 AM instead of 12:30 PM on Monday, official sources said.

Gambhir was handed over the summons to appear at the ED office here on Monday ”at 12:30 AM” by agency officials at the Kolkata airport on September 10 after they denied her from traveling abroad as she was required to join an investigation in an alleged coal scam case.

She reached the ED office in the Salt Lake area around the stipulated time given on the summons but as it was an erroneous date issued inadvertently, she found the office closed and returned after clicking some pictures, the sources said.

The sources said the midnight time printed on the earlier summons was a ”typographical error” and it should have been ”12:30 PM” on September 12.

Now, Gambhir has been sent a fresh summons to appear before the agency here around 2 PM, they said.

Gambhir has not been questioned by the ED in this case till now. The CBI had earlier questioned her in the said case.

In the Calcutta High Court in August directed the ED to question Gambhir at its regional office in Kolkata and not in Delhi and also not to take coercive steps against her till the next date of hearing.

Gambhir had challenged an ED summons that asked her to appear before it in Delhi on September 5 in connection with the alleged coal scam case and had sought direction from the court to the agency to allow her to appear before it in Kolkata, where she claimed she resides.

The ED has questioned Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and his wife Rujira in this case earlier. This case is being investigated by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) with Anup Majee being alleged to be the kingpin of a coal mining pilferage-linked money laundering case related to Eastern Coalfield Limited’s mines in Kunustoria and Kajora in and around Asansol in West Bengal.