Trinamool MP Abhishek's wife quizzed for over 2 hours by CBI

by Argus News

Kolkata, Feb 23: A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers on Tuesday questioned Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee's wife Rujira for over two hours at her residence in connection with its probe into the illegal coal smuggling case.

A team of CBI sleuths arrived at the residence of Abhishek here, minutes after West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee left her nephew's residence.

The CBI team, which was led by Investigation Officer Umesh Kumar and few women officers left from the residence of Rujira after two hours of questioning.

According to CBI sources, she was questioned about few of the bank transactions in her overseas account. However, senior officers of the agency remained tight-lipped on the development.

The CBI team had served a notice to Rujira on Sunday for questioning in connection with the case it registered in November last year. The CBI held Rujira Banerjee 'Naroola' as acquainted with the "circumstances" of the coal theft case. She is not named in the case.

Earlier in the day, Mamata Banerjee arrived at Abhishek's residence ahead of the CBI, and stayed there for over 10 minutes. Abhishek is the Chief Minister's nephew and second in command in the party.

On Monday, an eight-member team of the CBI also questioned Rujira's sister Menka Gambhir for over two and half hours in connection with the case.

Questioning of Abhishek's wife and his sister-in-law ahead of the high-octane West Bengal assembly polls has led to war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Trinamool Congress had described the central agency's action as "political vendetta".

The CBI had registered a case against the alleged kingpin of the pilferage racket Anup Majhi alias Lala, Eastern Coalfield Ltd General Managers Amit Kumar Dhar and Jayesh Chandra Rai, ECL chief of security Tanmay Das, area security inspector Kunustoria Dhananjay Rai, and SSI and security in-charge Kajora area Debashish Mukherjee.

On November 28 last year, the CBI had conducted raids at 45 locations in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh in connection with the coal smuggling racket.

On February 19, the CBI had also carried out searches at 13 locations in four districts of West Bengal including the premises of coal mafia Jaidev Mondal.