KOLKATA: A CBI team, comprising eight officers, questioned Mamata Benerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee’s sister-in-law, Menka Gambhir, at her residence for over three hours on Monday in connection with its probe into the alleged coal-mining scam.
A few minutes before the CBI team knocked at Gambhir’s house on EM Bypass, the Trinamool Congress Diamond Harbour MP’s wife Rujira Banerjee Naroola told the agency that its officers could visit her at her Harish Mukherjee Road residence between 11am and 3pm on Tuesday. She, however, said she “was unaware” why she was being questioned and did not know the “subject matter” of the probe. On Sunday, the CBI had served Rujira and Gambhir summons to question them.
The investigating agency registered an FIR last November, naming six people, including prime suspect Anup Maji and five officials of a nationalised mining company, while several others of a coal company, the CISF, the Railways and other departments were under suspicion. Raids were conducted at various places, including at the home of Trinamool youth leader Vinay Mishra in the last few months. Both Mishra and Maji are said to be absconding.
Rujira wrote to CBI additional police superintendent Umesh Kumar (the investigation officer) on Monday morning, acknowledging the summons that arrived when she was not at home on Sunday, and requesting him to inform her about its schedule.
