Delhi HC to hear TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee's plea challenging ED summons tomorrow

New Delhi [India], September 20 (ANI): A petition of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and his wife challenging ED summons issued to them has been listed to be heard by the Delhi High Court on Tuesday.

The petitioners sought the Court's direction to setting aside and quashing the summons issued in connection with the coal mining scam.

The matter is being listed before the Bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna for hearing on Tuesday.

Petitioner Abhishek Banerjee along with his wife Rujira Banerjee sought the issuance of direction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to not summon them in New Delhi and carry out any further examination in Kolkata, West Bengal.

According to the plea, the ED had on September 10, issued fresh summons to Abhishek Banerjee under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 requiring the personal appearance of him along with a voluminous set of documents on September 21, 2021, in New Delhi.

The petitioners alleged that they have serious apprehensions about the fairness of the investigation being conducted by the ED owing to the fact that the respondent is adopting a pick and choose attitude with respect to certain persons and is giving undue benefit and protection to complicit individuals and in return extracting false, baseless and malicious statements from them.

"The respondent agency is also selectively leaking information to the media with the intent of harming the reputation of the petitioners and encouraging a media trial, the details of which are further elaborated in the accompanying petition, in order to falsely embroil the Petitioners in baseless and scandalous allegations," read the plea.

The petition stated that the petitioner Abhishek Banerjee, is a politician hailing from the state of West Bengal and is presently serving as a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, having been elected from the Diamond Harbour, South 24 Parganas constituency in West Bengal and hence is a respected individual and a prominent member of the Indian polity and society. He has two minor children under her care, said the plea.

In this particular alleged illegal coal mining case, in the state of West Bengal, the CBI had already interrogated Abhishek Banerjee. (ANI)