Trinamool Congress MP and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday attacked the BJP Government for engaging in “vendetta politics” and dared the Centre to set any number of central agencies after him but he would “continue to fight against its anti-people policies without cowing down before them.”
Banerjee who led an election rally at Agartala ahead of by-elections there said “here I am addressing you and there they have sent the CBI to question my wife … this only proves that the BJP Government of Tripura is afraid of losing power … they are sure that a change is going to take place in this State and so they not only attacked our leaders and workers yesterday ahead of my meeting but also send central agencies to my house to torment my family members… but I am made of different mettle … I am not going to be bothered by such measures … let them do whatever they want.”
Banerjee’s attack came almost in tandem with a CBI team landing at his south Kolkata residence where --- barely half-a-km away from the residence of his aunt and Chief Minister --- they grilled his wife Rujira Narula Banerjee in connection with some foreign accounts and cattle smuggling case.
A team of eight officials including some women questioned her for more than 7 hours, sources said adding the questioning was done on account of some inconsistency in the statements given by her to the central agency during an earlier grilling session. She was earlier questioned in March last year.
Earlier the Supreme Court had provided the Banerjees a relief by directing the CBI to question the couple --- both Abhishek and his wife --- not in the national Capital where they had been repeatedly summoned for questioning but in Kolkata.
According to sources in the Agency the CBI team had information that several crores had been transferred to a bank account related to the Banerjee’s in Thailand.
Tuesday’s grilling comes a day after the Enforcement Directorate wrote a notice to Rujira Banerjee asking for a date when she could be questioned by the Agency. Both the ED and CBI have been questioning the Banerjees following court orders.
Incidentally, Bikash Mishra, a former State TMC youth wing leader’s name is also involved in the coal and cattle smuggling case. Mishra who was made the Youth Trinamool Congress vice president by the Banerjees is reported to have fled India and is currently in Bhaniatu, an island country near Australia.
Recently when Abhishek Banerjee went to Dubai for an alleged treatment of his eye the central agencies had objected to his foreign travel and the High Court had given him a conditional permission.
Another big TMC leader and its Birbhum strong man Anubrata Mondal was too being questioned in relation to coal and cattle smuggling. Mondal’s security guard has been arrested by the CBI with reports that an ordinary police constable he had amassed property worth crores not only his own name but also in the name of his maids.
Meanwhile, the TMC leadership reacted to the CBI action saying “the BJP is afraid that its government is going out of power in Tripura and so they are using such kinds of pressure tactic.”
Party MP Dr Shantanu Sen said that “the CBI action itself proves that the TMC is in the right path … no amount of pressure can stop our leaders … the TMC will continue to play an important role both in Tripura and Delhi under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee.”