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News Desk: The Enforcement Directorate has approached the Delhi High Court against the notices issued to its officers by the West Bengal Police in a case registered against a news channel by TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee.
The central agency said Banerjee had lodged the case at Kalighat police station to pressure ED officers who are probing a case related to illegal coal mining during the investigation of which he was also summoned in July and August.
Justice Yogesh Khanna on Tuesday said that the case will be heard on September 21. While Additional Solicitor General S V Raju represented the ED and three Assistant Directors to whom the notices have been issued by West Bengal Police, Senior Advocate Siddharth Luhtra represented the state government.
ED in the petition said Banerjee got the FIR registered with a malafide intention to derail the PMLA investigation being conducted by it and that the officers to whom the notices under Section 160(1) CrPC have been issued were associated with the investigation of the illegal coal mining case “in which Shri Abhishek Banerjee is one of the beneficiaries”. The notices asked the ED officers to appear in person before the Investigating Officer of the FIR.
“The complainant in the instant FIR is a political heavy weight and enjoys the clout in the State Government of West Bengal. The West Bengal is acting at his behest to derail the investigation being carried out by the Enforcement Directorate,” said the agency.
Banerjee in the complaint before the police in April said that editors of a news channel had entered into a criminal conspiracy and uploaded a forged and fake video with an intention to affect the result of assembly elections in the state.
