A
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team arrived Tuesday at the residence of
Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee in Kolkata to question his wife, Rujira, in
connection with a case linked to an alleged coal scam.

Minutes before the
central investigative team arrived at Abhishek Banerjee’s home, his aunt and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a show of support, paid a visit,
reports ANI.

Rujira and Maneka Gambhir, Abhishek Banerjee’s
sister-in-law, were served notices by the CBI on Monday. The Trinamool
Congress’s Diamond Harbour lawmaker had tweeted about it and the Chief Minister
said that she was not ‘scared of rats’.

The CBI action comes just ahead of the
Assembly elections scheduled in April-May. The Trinamool and the BJP are locked
in a fierce battle for the control of the state.

The case dates back to November 2020 when the
CBI registered an FIR against the alleged kingpin of a coal pilferage racket —
Manjhi alias Lala, Eastern Coalfield Ltd General Managers Amit Kumar Dhar and
Jayesh Chandra Rai besides ECL Chief of Security Tanmay Das, Area Security
Inspector, Kunustoria Dhananjay Rai and SSI and security in-charge Kajor area
Debashish Mukherjee.

Also Read | Who is Abhishek Banerjee? TMC leader whose wife and sister-in-law have been summoned by CBI

Manjhi Lala is accused of involvement in the
illegal mining and theft of coal from leasehold mines of ECL in Kunustoria and
Kajora areas, according to reports.

There has been some transfer of money from
accounts linked to the coal theft case to the bank accounts of these two
persons, reports NDTV quoting sources.

This is not the first time Rujira has been
involved in a controversy. In March 2019, she was held at the Netaji Subhash
International Airport with a “significant quantity of gold” and was
not allowing officials to scan her luggage.

Following this, the customs department had
issued her a notice under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962. Reportedly, the
Calcutta High Court later dismissed the custom department’s notice.