The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday, September 6, directed six family members of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to present affidavits in connection with a case involving their properties and other assets. An order in this regard was passed by a division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, that was hearing a plea filed by Arijit Majumder, who alleged an exponential rise in the properties and assets of the CM’s family members.
Amit Banerjee, Ajit Banerjee, Sameer Banerjee, Swapan Banerjee, Ganesh Banerjee, and Kajri Banerjee are six members of Mamata Banerjee’s family who have been named as accused in the case. The court has ordered the aforementioned kins of the TMC supremo to provide affidavits by November 11. The court will hear the PIL on November 28.
In the plea, the petitioner Arijit Majumder, who is being represented by BJP leader and lawyer Tarunjyoti Tiwari, claimed that the Trinamool Congress chief’s family amassed properties worth more than Rs 20 crores, specifically after the year 2011.
“We have shown each and every document that shows a huge increase in the assets of the family members of Mamata Banerjee. We have shown that in election affidavits, they did not disclose the actual assets. We have shown properties worth more than Rs 20 crores have been acquired by them, at different times, specifically after 2011, more specifically after 2013 when the chit fund scam was busted,” said the petitioner.
He further alleged that TMC leader Kunal Ghosh stated that the “money of Saradha Chit Fund is lying with Mamata Banerjee.”
Meanwhile, the court, during the next hearing on November 28, has summoned Trinamool State General Secretary Kunal Ghosh as a witness in the case. Mamata Banerjee has not been made a party in the case. Moreover, the CBI Director and the Director of the Income Tax Department have been named as defendants in this case.
Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Mamata Banerjee accused in a money laundering case linked to the coal scam
Notably, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, a Member of Parliament from the Diamond Harbour seat, is also on ED’s radar in a case registered against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED had found that the TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was the beneficiary of funds obtained from this illegal trade. However, he has denied all charges.
The case was filed under criminal sections of the (PMLA) by the ED based on the FIR filed by the CBI in November 2020. The FIR had alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to the Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in the West Bengal’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas near Asansol.
The Enforcement Directorate had previously filed a complaint with a special court saying that incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee of Diamond Harbor, and his family got illicit income from illegal coal mining in the state. It went on to say that it was made possible by a “deep system” of political patronage fueled by “well-oiled” machinery.
