New Delhi, September 12
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today questioned Maneka Gambhir, sister-in-law of TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, in connection with an alleged coal pilferage scam after it issued fresh summons to her following a goof-up earlier in which the agency had issued a notice for her appearance at 12.30 am instead of 12.30 pm on Monday.
Incidentally, Gambhir was later asked to appear by 2 pm, reached the agency’s Kolkata office around 12.40 pm and recorded her statement under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), officials said, while maintaining that the timing on the earlier summons was a “typographical error”.
Earlier, the ED was left red-faced when Gambhir reached the office of the agency in Kolkata past midnight, as the notice asked her to appear before it at 12.30 am. Gambhir was handed over the summons to appear at the ED office on Monday by agency officials at the Kolkata airport on September 10 after she was stopped from taking an international flight.
The Calcutta High Court had in August directed the ED to question Gambhir at its regional office in Kolkata and not in Delhi, and also not to take coercive steps against her till the next date of hearing.
Gambhir had challenged the ED summons that asked her to appear before it in Delhi on September 5 in connection with alleged coal pilferage.