According to persons acquainted with the situation, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee and his wife, Rujira, to appear before it in Delhi in connection with a money-laundering investigation into an illegal coal mining scandal.
Abhishek Banerjee, a member of Parliament and the nephew of state minister Mamata Banerjee, has been summoned to appear in court on September 6 and Rujira on September 1. He is being investigated by both the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CBI also questioned Rujira in February of this year.
According to the sources indicated above, other West Bengal police officers have also been summoned to appear before the ED in September. The ED’s money-laundering investigation is based on a CBI First Information Report (FIR) filed in November 2020 in connection with alleged mass coal theft at Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in West Bengal’s Kunustoria and Kajora.
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Anup Majhi alias Lala, a local contractor, is the main suspect in the scheme. In April of this year, the ED told a Delhi court that Abhishek Banerjee was reportedly receiving monies earned from illicit mining. TMC dismissed the accusations as political. In April, shortly before the West Bengal elections, the ED warned the court that illegal mining was booming in the state thanks to the “patronage” of the ruling political party.
The ED cited the investigation and claimed Majhi made 1,352 crores from illegal coal mining in two years. The cash gathered by Majhi and others in collaboration with police personnel allegedly made their way to West Bengal political figures before being laundered in India and overseas.
Vinay Mishra, a former TMC Youth leader who is wanted in the case, has eluded capture. In April, the ED stated, “Investigation uncovered a deep system of political patronage and a well-oiled network by which the system was hijacked to carry out these unlawful acts in a brazen manner.”
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According to the report, the suspected mastermind of the coal smuggling scheme ran an “illegal coal mining company smoothly by controlling prominent functionaries of the West Bengal political party through Inspector Mishra.” Majhi “aided in transferring considerable monies resulting from the proceeds of crime to Abhishek Banerjee’s close cousin in London and Thailand,” according to records recovered by the agency.
