Coal smuggling case: Questioned by ED for 6 hrs, Abhishek hits out at Shah

Speaking to mediapersons after emerging from the ED office, Abhishek launched an attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging that it was Shah who received proceeds of crime in the cattle and coal scams.

“I can’t be intimidated by the ED or the CBI just because I attacked Amit Shah’s son over the national flag issue…No ED raid has ever taken place in Gujarat. Why these raids happen only in states where the BJP is not in power. Why is the CBI now in Bihar?” he questioned.

The BJP is using agencies, a section of the media and the judiciary to target the Opposition parties, the TMC leader claimed.

On the allegations that Amit Shah received proceeds of crime from cattle and coal smuggling scams, BJP leader Rahul Sinha said, “If Abhishek Banerjee knew as when cattle smuggling happened, why didn’t he stop it? They (TMC leaders) are cattle smugglers. Now when it has been proved that Anubrata Mondal and his aides were behind the cattle smuggling racket, Abhishek is trying to divert attention from the issue. The BSF’s role is near the border. What were the state police doing and when the smuggling was happening. Either the administration simply failed to stop it or was actively involved.”

On Abhishek’s claim that he was being harassed for his tweet against Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, Sinha said, “Has he been questioned for the first time? He is making these baseless claims to divert people’s attention from coal smuggling.”

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “The BJP leaders had said that Abhishek will be called for questioning. Now, other people will be called too. The BJP leaders know what the CBI and the ED are going to do next. They only want to use these agencies for their political purposes.”

Earlier, the ED questioned the TMC general secretary in two phases starting a little after 11am, sources said, allowing him a 45-minute lunch break. A team of five officers of the central agency had reached Kolkata on Thursday night to question him. The agency had on August 30 summoned him to appear at its Kolkata office. Banerjee was interrogated for more than eight hours in March while his wife Rujira Banerjee had appeared before the agency officials in Kolkata on June 23 in the same case.

The ED had lodged a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, based on a November 2020 FIR registered by the CBI that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage in Eastern Coalfields mines in West Bengal’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas.

Says Suvendu spoke to absconding accused

Abhishek said, “I have evidence that Leader of Opposition in Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari spoke to Vinay Mishra, the absconding accused in the coal scam, in the last 6-8 months. These proceeds went to Amit Shah and other BJP leaders. Nishith Pramanik, a cattle smuggler whom we removed from the TMC, is now a minister at the Centre.”

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He added, “They (central agencies) are investigating this case for nearly two years now. The ED had to come from Delhi to Kolkata for questioning. I and my wife have been interrogated for seven times so far. But the net result is zero. People know the role of the ED and the CBI. Those who took money in front of the camera are not being called because they joined the BJP.”

The saffron party, he said, was using agencies against the Opposition leaders since it was unable to fight them politically. “I challenge them to prove if I have received even Rs 5 from someone. If I have to bow down before anyone, I will do it before the people. Shah should first teach his son patriotism before teaching it to the people of Bengal,” said Banerjee.