A Delhi Court has issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against TMC youth leader Vinay Mishra in a money laundering case related to the alleged coal pilferage scam in Asansol, West Bengal. According to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the case relates to Eastern Coalfields' mines at Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol, and also involves TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Banerjee.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma passed the order against Mishra on October 11, on an application moved by the ED. Accused Vinay Mishra is intentionally not appearing before the court, accordingly, NBWs be issued against him, the judge said.
ED's special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana told the court that Mishra evaded the summons issued by department. The court also noted that the accused himself did not chose to appear before it and was rather trying to pre-empt the proceedings through intervention of his wife by filing application challenging the legality of the proceedings.
It held that accused's wife, Neha Mishra, had no locus in the present proceedings. Neha, through an application, had submitted that the accused surrendered his nationality and had been admitted to nationality of Dubai and it was in the knowledge of the department; despite this, summons were served upon the family members at Kolkata address.
Rana submitted before the court that as a part of the investigation some incriminating material was available against Vinay Mishra in respect of laundering of crime proceeds and the authorized officer summoned him on four occasions, but he failed to appear. Recently the Delhi High Court exempted Rujira from personal appearance before the court.
Rujira recently had challenged a Delhi Court order directing her to appear before it, in connection with the case. Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira had earlier approached the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of summons issued to them by the ED for questioning in the case linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal, saying they are residents of Kolkata and should not be compelled to join the probe in the national capital.
The ED has lodged the case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on the basis of a November 2020 FIR registered by the CBI that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam.
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