banerjee: Supreme Court to hear next week plea of TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, spouse in PMLA case

The Supreme Court docket on Tuesday agreed to listing subsequent week for listening to the attraction of TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee and his spouse Rujira Banerjee in opposition to a Delhi Excessive Court docket order dismissing their petition looking for quashing of summons issued to them in a money-laundering probe linked to an alleged coal rip-off in West Bengal. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana took observe of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, showing for the Banerjee couple, that the plea be listed for pressing listening to.

“We’ll listing it subsequent week,” stated the bench which additionally comprised Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli.

In a petition filed by way of lawyer Sunil Fernandes, Banerjee and his partner have sought an ad-interim ex-parte keep of operation of the March 11 order of the Delhi Excessive Court docket.

The plea has sought a route to the ED that they be probed at Kolkata and Rujira Banerjee be exempted from private look and be allowed to look by way of her lawyer within the trial courtroom.

A single-judge bench of the excessive courtroom had denied the reduction to Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and his spouse Rujira Banerjee who had challenged the September 10, 2021 summons issued to them and had sought route to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to not summon them for his or her look in Delhi since they’re residents of West Bengal.

The excessive courtroom had additionally dismissed Rujira’s different petition which had challenged the ED’s criticism filed within the cash laundering case in opposition to her, the trial courtroom order taking cognisance of that criticism, and the following issuance of a summons for bodily look.

The attraction, within the apex courtroom, stated, “The substantial query of regulation, having nice public significance that arises for the sort consideration of this Hon’ble Court docket within the prompt petition is whether or not the Respondent-ED can assume a pan-India jurisdiction, to summon any particular person, with out indicating to such particular person as as to if they’re being summoned as an accused/ suspect or as a witness, at anywhere of their alternative, below the purported garb of Part 50 of the PMLA, in utter derogation of the Elementary Rights of the witness/accused individuals, salutary rules of truthful play and expeditious investigation, and the extant provisions of the CrPC and the PMLA.”

The couple, who was requested by the company to personally seem earlier than it in New Delhi on September 21, 2021, together with a voluminous set of paperwork, had contended within the petition that they had been residents of Kolkata and shouldn’t be compelled to affix the probe right here.

The 34-year-old MP represents the Diamond Harbour seat in Lok Sabha and is the nationwide basic secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

The excessive courtroom had earlier refused to grant any interim reduction to Banerjee and his spouse within the matter.

The ED lodged a case below the provisions of the PMLA primarily based on a November 2020 FIR registered by the CBI that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage rip-off associated to Japanese Coalfields Ltd mines within the state’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and round Asansol.

Native coal operative Anup Majhi alias Lala is alleged to be the prime suspect within the case.

The ED had claimed that the TMC MP was a beneficiary of funds obtained from this unlawful commerce. He has denied all prices.