Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here for questioning in a money laundering case linked to a coal scam in West Bengal.
Banerjee, 34, who is the TMC's national general secretary, reported at the new office of the ED in Central Delhi an hour before noon on Monday.
"I've cooperated with ED without making any excuses. These investigating agencies have been functioning under BJP's dictatorship. Since they are failing to take on TMC democratically, they are using the central agencies to scare the opposition," he said after the questioning session.
Banerjee's statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and he is said to have been confronted with some "evidence" gathered during investigation of the case. His role and links with other accused is being investigated, officials said. The Diamond Harbour MP was once questioned in this case in September last year.
Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, told reporters at the Kolkata airport on Sunday that the BJP government at the Centre is using the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for its political interests as it was unable to accept the setback in the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls. His wife Rujira also left with him for the national capital and is expected to join the ED probe in the same case on Tuesday.
The ED summons against the two came after the Delhi High Court on March 11 dismissed a plea by the couple challenging the agency notices asking them to appear in the national capital instead of Kolkata.
The agency lodged the case under the provisions of the PMLA based on a November 2020 FIR registered by the CBI that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields Limited mines in the state's Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol, headquarters of the Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal.