SC to hear on Sep 5 plea of TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee for going abroad for treatment

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on September 5 the plea by TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee seeking approval to go to Dubai for a medical procedure.

The top court had on May 17 granted relief to the TMC leader and his wife Rujira Banerjee by asking the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to examine them in its Kolkata office, instead of summoning them to Delhi, after giving a 24-hour advance notice.

The bench had also stayed the Delhi High Court order which had dismissed the pleas filed by the TMC MP and his wife seeking quashing of summonses issued to them in a money-laundering probe.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, at the outset, was urged by senior advocate Kapil Sibal that the leader has to go to Dubai for a medical procedure and the central probe agency has opposed it alleging he may not come back.

“There is urgency. He wanted to go to Dubai for a medical procedure. We filed a petition in the (Calcutta) high court and there they opposed saying I will not return back,” Sibal said.

Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED, reminded the court that they have been granted the relief of being interrogated in Kolkata.

“We will list this matter on Monday then. Whatever you want to file you either file or keep it ready with yourself,” the CJI, who was on the bench with Justice S Ravindra Bhat, said.

The court had, while allowing the couple to be questioned in Kolkata, observed it will not tolerate any kind of “interference or hooliganism” and said the state shall provide adequate police protection to ED officials there.

The ED had told the top court, according to them, the TMC MP is a “potential accused”.

On May 17 last year, a high voltage political drama was witnessed in Kolkata as TMC supporters held demonstrations at various places, while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered to court arrest protesting the detention of two West Bengal ministers in the Narada case by CBI.

TMC supporters had raised slogans against the BJP-led NDA government and hurled stones and bricks at security personnel outside Nizam Palace, which houses the CBI office, protesting the arrests.

The 34-year-old MP, a nephew of Mamata Banerjee, represents the Diamond Harbour seat in the Lok Sabha and is the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).