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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned the husband of a Trinamool Congress councilor, known to be a close confidante of West Bengal Law Minister Malay Ghatak, for questioning in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam in the state.
In a notice, the probe agency has asked Shankar Chakraborty, husband of Trinamool Congress councilor from Asansol Municipal Corporation Dipa Chakraborty, to be present at the ED's national headquarters in New Delhi next week. Sources said that the ED had been trying to reach Shankar Chakraborty for quite some time and the latter even stopped responding to telephone calls. So this time a notice has been sent to him with an ultimatum of strong legal actions, the sources added. On Monday, the ED had sent a notice to Ghatak asking him to be present at the agency's New Delhi office on June 19. Agency sources said that Ghatak had been dodging notice either on health grounds or stating reasons that he had been convened at a short notice. So this time, the notice has been sent granting him a period of two weeks. On Monday, Rujira Narula Banerjee, wife of Trinamool's General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, was also served a notice summoning her questioning on June 8 at the agency's Salt Lake office in Kolkata. She was also prevented from boarding an international flight by the immigration department at the Kolkata airport citing a lookout notice by the ED. Soon after that she was served the notice by ED. Meanwhile, Abhishek Banerjee has claimed that he will not succumb to pressure even if his wife and their three-year-old child are taken into custody by the central agency. He claimed that all these developments are just to spoil his ongoing mass outreach programme throughout West Bengal. "A mail had been sent to the ED on May 3, informing them about my wife's overseas visit. ED could have sent the notice then only. Now my family members are being targeted. But I will not succumb to any pressure," he said. --IANS src/ksk/ ( 350 Words) 2023-06-06-14:38:03 (IANS)
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