Ahead of INDIA meet, Sanjay Raut hits out at Centre over ED summons to TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee

Sanjay Raut/ File Photo

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday hit out at the union government ahead of the first meeting of Opposition INDIA bloc's Coordination Committee in Delhi. Raut said that Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee won't be attending the meeting as the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation do not want him to do so.

Raut was quoted in a news report by agency ANI as saying, "Today we will go to the meeting. The agenda decided in the Mumbai meeting will be discussed. Everybody is going to attend the meeting except Trinamool Congress."

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He added, "TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee is a member of this committee, he is not attending this meeting because ED and the BJP don't want him to. The central government does not want Abhishek Banerjee to reach Delhi and participate in the coordination committee meeting of INDIA."

The TMC leader was summoned by the central probe agency for questioning in the school recruitment scam in West Bengal and was spotted arriving at the agency's Kolkata office today.

Speaking further, Raut said, "He [Abhishek] was summoned by the ED today. We will keep his seat vacant to give a message on how central agencies are torturing members of the Opposition."

According to the ANI report, the TMC MP was summoned weeks after office ‘Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd' was raided by ED sleuths which the agency alleged was used to make dubious transactions running into crores of rupees. ED also claimed that Banerjee is the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

The MP, reacting to the notice, said that the central agency wanted him to appear before the sleuths on the very day when the Opposition INDIA bloc's Coordination Committee was slated to meet in Delhi.

He wrote in a social media post, "FIRST meet of INDIA's coordination comm (committee) is on 13th Sept in Delhi, where I'm a member. But @dir_ed conveniently served me a notice just now to appear before them on the VERY SAME DAY! One can't help but marvel at the TIMIDITY & VACUOSNESS of the 56-inch chest model. #FearofINDIA."

INDIA Coordination Committee Meet

INDIA alliance's coordination committee will be meeting today for the first time at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's Delhi residence. The 14-member coordination committee was announced at the September 1 Mumbai meeting of the Opposition bloc.

The committee includes Sharad Pawar (NCP), Raghav Chadha (AAP), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), TR Baalu (DMK), Sanjay Raut (SS), Tejasvi Yadav (RJD), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Hemant Soren (JMM), KC Venugopal (Congress), Javed Ali Khan (SP), Lallan Singh (JD(U)), D Raja (CPI), Omar Abdullah (NC), and one leader from CPI(M).