Abhishek Banerjee appears before ED in connection with Coal scam case
Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi today in connection with the coal scam case. Abhishek, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was summoned along with his wife Rujira for questioning in connection to a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam. However, Rujira urged the ED to allow her to appear before officials in Kolkata as she expressed unwillingness to travel to the national capital due to Covid-19.
Banerjee, 33, arrived at the office of the central agency at Jam Nagar house in central Delhi just before 11 AM. "I am ready to face investigation and I will cooperate with the agency," he said.
"TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee appears before ED for questioning in money laundering case," ED officials told PTI.
Earlier on Sunday, Abhishek Banerjee Sunday said that he would get himself hanged if any central agency can bring to the fore his involvement in any illegal transaction. Speaking to reporters at the Kolkata airport on his way to New Delhi to attend a summons by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged coal scam case, Banerjee accused the BJP of indulging in political vendetta having lost the state assembly elections.
"I reiterate what I had said in November at public meetings that if any central agency can prove my involvement in any illegal transaction of even 10 paise, there will be no need to hold any CBI or ED probe, I will walk up the podium and get myself hanged publicly," he said.
He has been summoned to appear before the investigating officer of the case in New Delhi on September 6 for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the alleged coal scam in West Bengal.
"I am ready to face any and every kind of investigation," Banerjee said, adding that despite it being a case of Kolkata, he was summoned to New Delhi. "Having lost the elections and failing to tackle Trinamool Congress politically, they (BJP) are now seeking revenge," he claimed.
The BJP has no other job than to use the investigating agencies to fulfil their political interests, he alleged. Banerjee said that he would like to invite any BJP leader to sit face to face with him and discuss what the central agencies have done in the last five years and the fate of the country in the seven-year-rule of the Narendra Modi government.
"You (BJP) decide the date, time and venue and I will go; if I cannot expose them then I will not put my feet in the political arena anymore," he asserted.
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