ED stops Abhishek Banerjee's sister-in-law from boarding Bangkok-bound flight at Kolkata airport
Sep 11, 2022
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], September 11 : Maneka Gambhir, the sister-in-law of Trinamool Congress national general secretary and party MP Abhishek Banerjee, was stopped at Kolkata airport and not allowed to take her flight to Bangkok by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Saturday night.
Gambhir was sent back to home with a summon to join the investigation on Monday, sources told ANI.
This is the third summon by ED issued to Gambhir.
Earlier she challenged the ED to summon in Calcutta High Court and was allowed to appear at ED's office at the Central Government Office (CGO) at Salt Lake in the northern outskirts of Kolkata, instead of appearing in New Delhi.
On Saturday when Gambhir reached Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata to catch a flight to Bangkok but on reaching the immigration counter, she was stopped and escorted to another room.
Immigration officials informed to ED officials about her, as a Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against Ganbhir by the federal probe agency. ED officials denied giving her permission to travel to Bangkok. She was handed over a summon by Assistant Enforcement Officer to appear before him on Monday. After that Gambhir left for her residence.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) originally took over the investigation of the coal smuggling case by registering a case in November 2020. Later, the ED was roped in the investigation process to probe the money laundering angle.