Coal smuggling case: CBI reaches Abhishek Banerjee’s home to question his wife

Kolkata:  A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers reached Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee’s residence in south Kolkata to question his wife Rujira Narula Banerjee in connection with the coal smuggling case in West Bengal.

A team of eight officers of CBI, which included some women officers, reached her residence at around 11.45 a.m., just an hour after Abhishek Banerjee left from Kolkata for Tripura to attend an election campaign rally.

Abhishek Banerjee’s residence is within 300 meters from the residence of his aunt and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

CBI officers said that the interrogation team will question Rujira Narula Banerjee regarding transfer of huge amounts of money to a particular bank account in Thailand, which is purportedly held by her.

Incidentally, on Monday, Enforcement Directorate (ED) too had sent a notice to Rujira Narula Banerjee asking her to specify the date and time when she will be available for questioning in the same case.

The ED and CBI are conducting parallel probes in this matter.

The urgent interrogation of Rujira Narula Banerjee on Tuesday was prompted after certain clues surfaced in the case that contradicts the earlier statements given by her to the Central agency officials in March last year.

The probe officials want to counter-question her to corroborate her statements, sources said.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress leadership have termed the timing of this sudden interrogation as politically motivated.

According to Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Santanu Sen, the move by the CBI was deliberate and politically motivated since it coincided with Abhishek Banerjee’s visit to Tripura.

“Actually, the BJP is scared of his growing popularity in Tripura and so they have used the CBI to cause deliberate inconvenience for him on this crucial day.

However, BJP’s state spokesman Shamik Bhattacharya said that it has become a habit of Trinamool Congress leadership to cry foul on every issue.

“The CBI is probing the coal smuggling case following the order of the court and the Central agency team will act according to its own requirement. Hence, there is no question of BJP influencing their probe process,” he said.

–IANS