Enforcement Directorate moved the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of notices issued to its officials, probing in respect of money laundering in an illegal coal mining scandal in West Bengal, by Kolkata Police Special Cell.
At the outset, CBI, Kolkata, registered a First Information Report in November last year, on the allegations that an illegal coal pilferage was taking place at Eastern Coalfield Ltd. mines in the areas of West Bengal. Upon investigation into the matter, it was revealed that the Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, was a beneficiary of funds obtained in the alleged illegal mining scandal.
The plea alleges that in order to pressurize the investigating officers, Abhishek lodged an FIR at P.S Kalighat, Kolkata, in April this year, in respect of which, notices have been issued by the West Bengal Police to the officials performing their statutory functions in Delhi. “The said FIR has been registered with a malafide intention to derail the investigation under PMLA being conducted by the Directorate of Enforcement,” the plea contends.
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It is further alleged that Abhishek Banerjee is a ‘political heavyweight’, who enjoys clout in the ruling West Bengal Government, and that the West Bengal Police is acting at his behest to derail the investigation being carried out by ED.
The plea reads thus:
“The FIR by the complainant, Abhishek Banerjee and the subsequent illegal notices..are nothing but merely an abuse of the process of law having been issued malafide and with the oblique motive and intent at stifling the fair and impartial investigation being undertaken by Enforcement Directorate for unearthing large financial scams / frauds taking place in the State of West Bengal and the country.”