Abhishek Banerjee’s wife gets CBI notice, Mamata says ‘we are not scared of rats’

The Chief Minister of poll-bound West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, hit out at the Centre soon after the central investigating agency, CBI, landed at nephew Abhishek Banerjee’s house and served notices to his wife and sister-in-law in connection with a coal pilferage case.

“Don’t try to intimidate us with the jail. We have fought against guns and are not afraid of fighting against rats,” a fuming Mamata Banerjee said at an event soon after the CBI action.

Who is Abhishek Banerjee?

Abhishek Banerjee, 33, is Mamata’s nephew and a Trinamool Party MP from the Diamond Harbour constituency. An MBA, Abhishek joined politics in 2011 when Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool ended the 34-year rule of the Left in the state.

Seen as the political heir of Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek is also the president of the youth Trinamool Congress and wields considerable influence in the party. He has been at the forefront of attacks on BJP leaders in the run-up to Assembly elections due in April-May. He married Rujira in 2012 and has two children.

The CBI notices to Banerjee’s family members came a day before a court in Kolkata is due to hear a defamation case filed by him against Home Minister Amit Shah who is spearheading the BJP campaign in the state.

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The CBI notices on Sunday asked Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira Banerjee to remain present at her address on Harish Mukherjee Road on the same day “for the purpose of answering certain questions relating to the case”, reports PTI. Rujira’s sister Menaka Gambhir has been asked by the CBI to join the probe on Monday when she will be quizzed by the investigation team, the sources said.

Abhishek soon tweeted, “At 2 pm today, the CBI served a notice in the name of my wife. We have full faith in the law of the land. However, if they think they can use these ploys to intimidate us, they are mistaken. We are not the ones who would ever be cowed down.”

What is the case?

The case was registered in November last year against the alleged kingpin of the pilferage racket Manjhi alias Lala, Eastern Coalfield Ltd General Managers Amit Kumar Dhar (of then Kunustoria area now Pandaveswar area) and Jayesh Chandra Rai (Kajor area) besides ECL Chief of Security Tanmay Das, Area Security Inspector, Kunustoria Dhananjay Rai, and SSI and security in-charge Kajor area Debashish Mukherjee, reports the news agency.

State BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said the TMC leadership should not be worried if it is in the clear.

“Why is TMC so worried and tensed if they have committed no wrong? If the CBI acts, then it becomes a political vendetta. If the CBI doesn’t act, we hear accusations of political match-fixing of TMC-BJP.

The Trinamool and BJP are locked in a fierce battle for control of the state that has seen the saffron party make steady progress over the past few years. The BJP emerged as the Trinamool Congress’s main rival by winning 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal 2019 general elections, only four short of TMC’s tally of 22.