Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has come down heavily on the Narendra Modi-led central government and the Enforcement Directorate after his wife Rujira Banerjee was stopped by the immigration department from boarding a flight to Dubai from Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport on Monday.

Rujira, an accused in the West Bengal coal scam, was also asked to appear before the ED yesterday. Reacting to the development, Abhishek Banerjee, himself an accused in the West Bengal school jobs scam, the coal smuggling, Saradha and Narada sting cases, termed the development as a deliberate attempt to harass him in order to derail his ongoing state-wide ‘Trinamoole Nabo Jowar campaign’.

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“The Opposition party wants to obstruct our Trinamoole Nabo Jowar yatra and are looking for ways to harass us and ensure that I am mentally puzzled. I would like to tell them that there is no use doing this,” Banerjee said Monday evening.

Targeting the Prime Minister, Banerjee said that he refuses to bow to the pressure tactics being used against him. “I will not bow down even if ED arrests my wife, my children, or me. With all due respect to the chair of the Prime Minister, I wish to remind him that he is almost twice my age. Your political experience might be the same as my age. Yet, you are not able to fight me politically in the people’s court,” he added.

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Trinamool leaders allege that the development was in contravention of the Supreme Court’s orders in the case, which impose no restrictions on travel on his wife. The ED, they said, was only meant to be informed in advance, which Rujira did a month ahead of her scheduled travel.

Abhishek Banerjee has accused the central agency of “deliberate harassment” as they had already asked ED for permission on his wife’s travel plans to see her “ill mother” but received no response. The TMC leader also accused the Centre of tapping his and his wife’s phone call records.

“This blatant disregard for the SC’s order and the systematic misuse of power by BJP to carry out political vendettas is deeply concerning and undermines the very fabric of our democratic system. “ the TMC tweeted on its official handle.