Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Banerjee on Monday approached the Supreme Court challenging the summons issued to them by Enforcement Directorate (ED) for appearance here in connection with the money laundering probe linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal.
They challenged the Delhi High Court March 11 order by which their pleas against the issuance of summons were dismissed. Filing the plea through advocate Sunil Fernandes, Banerjee requested the top court to quash summons and restrain ED from seeking their presence for questioning in Delhi. They pleaded that they can be questioned by ED at Kolkata and sought a stay on High Court’s order.
The petitioners have asked the apex court to decide whether ED can assume pan-India jurisdiction to summon persons from anywhere to Delhi.
“Whether the Respondent can assume pan-India jurisdiction to summon any person at the place of their choice, while exercising powers under Section 50 PMLA?” the plea questioned while adding that High Court has failed to appreciate that the couple are permanent residents of Kolkata and the entire alleged cause of action and the place of alleged offence, is in the state of West Bengal.
The search and seizure operations recorded in the FIR/RC took place in West Bengal wherein allegedly stolen coal was recovered and all the accused persons named in the FIR/RC are permanent residents of West Bengal, it added.
Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, appeared before the ED office at Delhi today. The High Court on March 11 dismissed their plea and following this, the ED issued fresh summons to Banerjee and his wife to depose before the agency’s office in Delhi on March 21 and 22.
Approaching the top court, Banerjee said he belongs to TMC and was leading figure in keenly contested Assembly Elections in West Bengal in April/May 2021 (around the same time when the FIR was registered) wherein his party trounced the political party at power in the Centre, and “thereby giving justifiable cause to “target” and “fix” the Petitioner no.1 (Banerjee) by misusing the Central Investigation Agencies”.
The contention of the petitioners is that this entire case against them is nothing but a political witch-hunt and cannot be brushed away lightly as done in the impugned order (of the High Court), the plea drawn by advocate Fernandes said.