ED rectifies error, summons Maneka Gambhir today

Kolkata, Sep 12

Rectifying the error in the mention of timing of appearance in its earlier notice, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has served a fresh notice to Maneka Gambhir, the sister-in-law of Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress national general secretary, asking her to be present at the central agency's office here by 12.30 p.m. on Monday.

Gambhir is under probe by the ED in connection with the multi-crore coal scam.

ED sources said that after Maneka Gambhir reached the agency's office at 12.30 a.m. on Monday (September 12), it came to the notice of their sleuths that in the earlier notice the timing of appearance was mistakenly mentioned at "12.30 AM on September 12, 2022."

Admitting that there had been a typing and technical error, an ED official said that after noting the timing, Gambhir could have contacted them or even emailed them about the oddness of the timing mentioned in the earlier notice.

"But instead of doing that she reached our office at that odd hour. But anyway, we cannot really describe this as her fault, since she is on the right side by being present at the time mentioned in the notice. The technical error had been at our end. So, we have issued a fresh notice to her and asked to be present at our CGO complex office by 12 p.m. today," an ED official said.

Earlier, on late Sunday night she reached the ED office at 12.30 a.m. along with her counsel, Soumen Mohanti, and waited there for ten minutes and left. Before leaving, her counsel said that they were there honouring the time of appearance given to them by the ED.

To recall, Gambhir, who is under probe by the ED in connection with the multi-crore coal scam, was stopped from travelling abroad on Saturday night following an objection by the ED.

She was stopped at the immigration department soon after she submitted her ticket and passport there before boarding a flight to Bangkok. Later, she was denied boarding on grounds that a lookout notice had been issued against her in a particular case and hence she cannot leave the country.

As a supporting document, the immigration department furnished an email printout of a notice from the ED, through which the latter had summoned her to be present at the ED office in Kolkata for questioning in a particular case. In that notice the error in the mention of timing of appearance happened.