Kolkata 7 September : West Bengal Law Minister Malay Ghatak on Wednesday evening called the raids conducted carried out by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigators in his homes throughout the day as a deliberate politically motivated and designed to vilify him.On Wednesday, CBI detectives conducted marathon raids at five homes of Ghatak, three of them at Asansol in West Burdwan district and two in Kolkata.
“The CBI officials conducted raids and search operations for more than seven hours.They scrutinized all the documents.
I was not able to attend the review meeting which was chaired by the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.This whole action was deliberate driven by politics and was intended to smear me.I would like to ensure that such an attempt to denigrate anyone doesn’t happen in the future.” Ghatak, who had avoided multiple summons from Enforcement Directorate (ED) for interrogation in relation with the coal smuggling fraud and told media personnel.
He stated that CBI investigators have seized a variety of documents from his home in the raids.”The document relating to the information of the account at the bank to which my MLA salary and also as a state ministers are credited has been confiscated.They also confiscated the original of my tax returns for income.They also have seized the sim card of three of my mobile phones,” Ghatak said.
He also provided his own reasons as to why he avoided several summons by the ED.
“First I was summoned prior to the Asansol Municipal Corporation elections.Then I was summoned just before the bypolls in the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency.But, I responded to each summons and explained the reason I was unable to travel to New Delhi to face questioning,” Ghatak said.
When asked if he would honor the ED’s new summons, for to be present at the headquarter of the agency at New Delhi on September 14 The Law Minister replied that he has not yet received any email or notice from the ED on this issue.”However it is not easy for me to travel to Delhi on September 14 as an upcoming session of the Assembly will begin on the 14th of September,” he said.
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