KOLKATA: Maneka Gambhir, on Monday, filed a contempt plea before the Calcutta High Court claiming that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) stopped her from travelling outside India, despite no such restriction being imposed by it in its order.
The petition, mentioned before the court of Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya, is expected to be taken up for hearing later this week. Gambhir claimed in the contempt petition that she was stopped from travelling abroad at the NSC Bose International Airport here on Saturday evening on ED's directions.
Meanwhile, Gambhir— sister-in-law of Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee— was summoned by the ED at the CGO Complex at 12:30 am on the intervening night of Sunday-Monday. To comply with the order she went to CGO Complex but no ED officials were found there. She waited there for some time and returned. However, on Monday ED officials stated that in the summon, the time 12:30 am was erroneously put and a fresh summon was served to Gambhir on Monday asking her to appear in the afternoon for questioning in connection with the coal scam case.Gambhir reached the ED office as mentioned in the summon. Till about 8.30 pm, Gambhir was questioned.
She was stopped from travelling to Bangkok on Saturday evening by the ED. She reached Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport around 7 pm to catch a flight scheduled at around 9 pm. When she approached the immigration counter and handed over the documents, the concerned officer stopped her. The officer reportedly told Gambhir that she couldn't leave the country as a lookout notice had been issued in her name by the ED. After a while, ED officials from the CGO Complex went to the airport and served a notice to Gambhir asking her to appear for questioning on Monday.