Can’t scare us with ED, CBI: Abhishek Banerjee

Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday said that he could not be threatened with central government investigating agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). He was speaking at a programme to mark the foundation day of the party’s students’ wing, Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad.

Banerjee said that the Trinamool will wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) whichever state it goes into to fight the party. “Within a year and a half, we will wrest power from the BJP in Tripura,” he said. “I want to tell the people of Tripura, that we will fight with all our strength in the state for you, let the BJP do what it can,” he said. “Let them stop us if they can”.

Abhishek Banerjee also said: “If they think they can scare us with the ED and CBI, they are wrong. The more you do it, the stronger will be our conviction to reach our goal.”

Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira have been summoned by the Central government’s Enforcement Directorate in an alleged money laundering case involving coal smuggling. The Diamond Harbour MP has been asked to appear before the agency’s New Delhi office on September 6 and his wife has been asked to appear before them on September 1. Their lawyer, Sanjay Basu, has also been asked to appear before the agency, on September 3. Also, two senior IPS officers from West Bengal – Gyanwant Singh and Shyam Singh – have been summoned by the ED in the same case on September 8 and 9.