The Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Maneka Gambhir, sister-in-law of All India Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, in money laundering case after the notice for appearance erroneously mentioned at 12.30 am instead of 12.30 pm. The ED, however, said Gambhir has been summoned today at 12.30 pm.
Gambhir had reached ED’s office in Salt Lake area at 12.30 am but it was closed. She and her lawyer showed the summons to the office’s night guard who allowed them inside the premise. Sources said she waited for 20 minutes and then left.
The ED had issued summons to Gambhir at the Kolkata airport on September 10 after they denied her from travelling to Bangkok (Thailand) as she was required to join investigation in the alleged coal scam.
“I was given summons at the airport, the timing was this (12.30 am). I came accordingly,” Gambhir said.
The sources said the midnight time printed on the earlier summons was a “typographical error” and it should have been “12.30 pm” on September 12.
Now, Gambhir has been sent fresh summons to appear before the agency in Kolkata around 12.30 pm today, sources said. Gambhir has not been questioned by the ED in the money laundering case till now. The CBI had earlier questioned her in the said case. She will go to the ED office today for questioning, sources said.
The Calcutta High Court in August directed the ED to question Gambhir at its regional office in Kolkata and not in Delhi and also not to take coercive steps against her till the next date of hearing. Gambhir had challenged an ED summon that asked her to appear before it in Delhi on September 5 in connection with the alleged coal scam case and had sought direction from the court to the agency to allow her to appear before it in Kolkata, where she claimed she resides.
The ED has questioned Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira in this case earlier.
People close to Gambhir say she had informed the regional ED office in Kolkata that she was going abroad.
Sources say Abhishek Banerjee’s camp has called this “vindictive politics” but will follow the law of the land and let the ED do its investigation.
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