Rujira Narula Banerjee, wife of Trinamool Congress’ national general secretary and party Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee, was stopped by the immigration department at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata from boarding a Dubai-bound flight.
It is learnt that she arrived at the airport on Monday morning along with her two children to catch a flight to Dubai. However, she was stopped by the immigration department and was denied boarding. After some initial conversation with the officers of immigration department she left the airport.
The immigration department, it is learnt, denied her the boarding permission following a lookout notice issued against her by the Enforcement Directorate.
However, Trinamool Congress sources said that first the Calcutta High Court and then the Supreme Court had given her a shield on this count and clearly said that her foreign travels cannot be restricted.
Party sources further said the national general secretary might approach the court again in this matter alleging contempt of court.
Condemning the development, Trinamool Congress’s state spokesman in West Bengal said that Rujura Banerjee was deliberately stopped at a time when Abhishek Banerjee is in the districts as part of this ongoing mass outreach programme.
“Her legal brains are looking into the matter. However, she had been deliberately targeted as the BJP and the Union government are unable to combat Trinamool Congress politically and they are scared of the success of Abhishek Banerjee’s mass outreach programme. Such cowardice is a reflection of the political bankruptcy on part of BJP,” Ghosh said.
Countering Ghosh, BJP state spokesman in West Bengal Samik Bhattacharya said that if she had been stopped illegally the law would take its own course. “First we will have to know why exactly she was stopped. There is no reason to consider in advance that the immigration department took that action without any valid reason,” Bhattacharya said.
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