Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday lashed out at the BJP Government for getting the Enforcement Directorate to stop her niece-in-law Rujira Banerjee from flying to Dubai where she was reportedly going to see her indisposed mother.
“This is inhuman to stop a woman from going to see her indisposed mother in a foreign country … Rujira is a Punjabi girl who has never been concerned with politics … but still she is being harassed because of political reasons,” Banerjee said adding the ED had stopped her from going abroad in utter violation of a Supreme Court order which only required her to inform the investigating officials before any foreign trip.
“She was stopped at the immigration, citing a lookout notice issued by the ED in a case. There is a court order, which has clearly said that there is no bar on her travelling abroad,” her lawyers said adding, “we are mulling legal options.”
Rujira Narula Banerjee is the wife of the Chief Minister’s nephew and Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
“Though there was a Supreme Court order permitting her to go abroad after informing the ED they have stopped her from going to see her mother today,” the Chief Minister said adding “a Government which cannot prevent railway accidents … a Government which cannot prevent the rally of the dead is harassing its citizens.”
TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh, too, attacked the BJP Government for victimizing the Opposition leaders. “Having failed to counter Abhishek Banerjee politically, having failed to win elections in Bengal the BJP is using the ED and the CBI to victimise him … and the best way of doing so is to victimise his family members… this is a pure act of cowardice.”
Rujira, who had earlier been questioned by the ED and CBI in the multi-crore coal scam, was on Monday morning flying off to Dubai, when she was stopped by the immigration officials from boarding the flight.
In a curious development Rujira was served with a notice of appearance by the ED soon after she was prevented from boarding the aircraft at NSI Airport in Kolkata. She has been asked to appear before the ED officials on June 8, sources said.
Meanwhile, in a related development the ED on Monday served a notice to Bengal minister Maloy Ghatak asking him to appear in its Delhi office, sources said. Ghatak had earlier evaded two appearances saying his health would not permit him to move to Delhi. He had even moved the Supreme Court seeking a respite from appearance in Delhi.
However the Apex Court directed the ED to give him 15-days’ notice before appearance. Accordingly Ghatak has been asked to appear at the ED office in Delhi on June 19.
Ghatak had already been quizzed twice by the central agency which had on an earlier occasion raided his residence and offices in Kolkata.
Reacting to the ED summons, senior BJP leader Rahul Sinha said, “time has come for all the TMC leaders involved in all kinds of scams to go behind the bars … Maloy Ghatak is perhaps next in the line after Partha Chatterjee, Manik Bhattacharya, and other TMC leaders who are presently in jail… he will have to disclose the facts regarding who were the real beneficiaries in the coal scam” which amounts to Rs 8,000 crore.