Fresh ED summons for Mahua in 'cash-for-query': Quiz related to FEMA provisions
Telegraph | 6 March 2024
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent fresh summons to Mahua Moitra, the former Trinamul MP from Krishnanagar, asking her to appear before interrogators on March 11 in Delhi.
The central investigating agency, which is probing alleged irregularities against the Trinamul leader under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), had earlier summoned Moitra on February 19.
Moitra had then sought time of a few weeks to join the investigation and sent a communication to the ED expressing her inability to depose before it in February, senior ED officials said.
"We want to question her and record her statements in this particular case under the provisions of FEMA when she turns up," said a senior ED official.
Moitra told The Telegraph on Monday evening she hasn't received the summons as yet.
"I haven't received the summons till now.... But the agency always leaks such information to the media before sending it to me. So I have no comments," Moitra said.
Officials of the central investigating agency said that a case under FEMA has been registered against Moitra as it has information about certain alleged foreign transactions, including undisclosed ones, and those were being probed under the provisions of the Act.
Moitra, elected in 2019 from Krishnanagar constituency in Nadia district, is already being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as part of a preliminary enquiry in connection with the alleged cash-for-query case.
She was expelled as a member of Lok Sabha after the Ethics panel found her guilty in the "cash-for-query" case.
The Trinamul leader, who has found the party's support following her expulsion, has denied any wrongdoing and claimed she was being targeted as she had raised questions in Parliament on the deals of the Adani group.
"Mahua remains an important choice for the party for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Abhishek Banerjee, the party's national general secretary, has complete confidence in her abilities to fight her own battles," said a Trinamul leader, also one of the party's observers for Krishnanagar district.
Besides Moitra, the ED had earlier summoned actor-turned politician Dev for questioning on February 21.
Dev, who is likely to be fielded from Ghatal, faced the ED in Delhi for some eight hours.