HC allows Abhishek to go abroad for treatment

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Banerjee to go to Dubai for medical treatment. The Enforcement Direcorate (ED), which is probing the two in a coal smuggling scam, had opposed their travel.

Banerjee had appealed before the High Court challenging a notice of the Enforcement Directorate preventing him from travelling abroad.

Rejecting the ED's notice, Justice Bibek Chaudhuri maintained that right to get proper treatment is a fundamental right. Banerjee can stay abroad till June 10. During this period, the ED cannot send him a notice. Banerjee will have to give copies of the flight ticket to ED. He will have to inform it about his place of stay and its contact number along with the address of the hospital, where he will be receiving treatment.

"It is needless to mention that the right to life is the most important fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution. Right to life includes right to get proper medical treatment. A person cannot be forced or compelled for medical treatment of a particular country if he feels that his medical treatment will be made more effectively in some hospitals situated in some foreign country," the court observed.