Kolkata 12th September : In the afternoon of Monday, Meneka Gambhir was the sister-in law of the Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was interrogated by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in connection with the multi-crore coal smuggling fraud her lawyer had filed an in contempt of court petition in Calcutta High Court against the Central agency.In her petition, the counsel for the plaintiff has stated that ED has engaged in contempt of court for violating the earlier ruling of one-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court that stayed the Central agency from taking a stern decision against her client until further orders.
On the 30th of August the Calcutta High Court’s one-judge bench of Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya ruled in favor of Gambhir’s request to be interrogated in the ED office located in the Central Government Office (CGO) complex in Salt Lake in northern Kolkata on the date he requested rather than of the agency’s New Delhi office.In the decision, the bench stated that the sleuths of the Central agency are not required to take any drastic steps against Gambhir until further orders are issued.
In the contempt of court petition filed by the same bench on Monday the counsel for Gambhir asserted that in the ruling of the bench of Justice Bhattacharya on August 30, it was not stated that she is not allowed to travel abroad for travel in the interim.
On the evening of September 10th, she was stopped at the immigration office shortly after she presented her passport and ticket before boarding a plane to Bangkok.
Then, she was denied boarding because an alert notice was given to her in the case of a specific incident and, therefore, she was not able to quit the country.
As a document supporting the claim, the immigration department supplied an email copy of an email from the ED that stated that the department had summoned her to attend the ED office in Kolkata to be questioned in the specific case.
In the petition that was filed at the same court on Monday the counsel of Gambhir has claimed that ED has been found guilty of inflicting contempt of the court by preventing her from taking an international excursion in the evening of Saturday.The matter has been accepted and will be brought up in hearing shortly.
src/kvd
