Maneka Gambhir files contempt of court petition in Calcutta HC against ED

On Monday afternoon, while Meneka Gambhir, the sister-in-law of the Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, was being interrogated by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in connection with the multi-crore coal smuggling scam, her counsel filed a contempt of court petition at Calcutta High Court against the Central agency.

In the petition, her counsel has claimed that ED has resorted to contempt of court by violating an earlier order of a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court that stayed the Central agency from taking a strong action against her client till further orders.

On August 30, Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya approved Gambhir's prayer to appear for questioning at the ED office at the Central Government Office (CGO) complex at Salt Lake in northern Kolkata on that date instead of the agency's New Delhi office. In that order, the bench also said that the Central agency sleuths should not take any drastic step against Gambhir till further orders.

In the contempt of court petition filed at the same bench on Monday, Gambhir's counsel argued that in the order by the bench of Justice Bhattacharya on August 30, nowhere was it mentioned that she is barred from foreign travels in the interim period.

However, on the night of September 10, she was stopped at the immigration department soon after she submitted her ticket and passport there before boarding a flight to Bangkok. Later, she was denied boarding on grounds that a lookout notice had been issued against her in a particular case and hence, she cannot leave the country.

As a supporting document, the immigration department furnished an email printout of a notice from the ED, through which the latter had summoned her to be present at the ED office in Kolkata for questioning in a particular case.

In the petition filed at the same bench on Monday, Gambhir's counsel has argued that ED has resorted to contempt of court by stopping her from going for a foreign trip on Saturday night. The matter has been admitted and will come up from hearing soon.

--IANS

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