INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday asked ED to withdraw a look-out circular against Mamata Banerjee's nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee
and his wife, Rujira, who are being probed in a money laundering case arising out of a coal pilferage scam
The court, however, directed the couple to take the agency's permission a week before flying out of India.The order was passed on an
application filed by the two, seeking permission to go abroad for medical treatment
Observing that travelling abroad is a matter of right unless a person is going to abscond, the SC sought an explanation from ED on issuing
the circular.Additional solicitor general S V Raju, appearing for the ED, told the Supreme Court Friday that the look-out circular issued
against TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee and his wife, Rujira, was not coming in the way of the couple to go abroad as the agency allowed them to do
so.The bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia, however, said that pendency of the circular creates a scenario where
someone is stopped and questioned despite the agency letting them fly out of India.The apex court had in May last year stayed a summon
issued to Banerjee and his wife to appear before ED in its Delhi office and had said that the agency can interrogate them at its Kolkata
office where the politician also agreed to be quizzed.Banerjee and his wife later approached the apex court after their plea was dismissed
They challenged the summons issued to them for appearance in Delhi in connection with the money laundering probe linked to an alleged coal
scam in West Bengal.The 35-year-old MP represents the Diamond Harbour seat in Lok Sabha and is the national general secretary of
theTrinamool Congress (TMC).The ED lodged a case under the provisions of the PMLA based on a November 2020 FIR registered by the CBI that
alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in West Bengal's Kunustoria and Kajora areas, which are
