Money Laundering Case: Supreme Court Dismisses Abhishek Banerjee and his Wife’s plea against the ED summons

Today (September 09, 2024), the Supreme Court (SC) of India was hearing the writ petition filed by Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Banerjee (Appellants) seeking quashing of summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) (Respondent) in relation to a money laundering case (under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act). They also seek direction against the ED not to issue any Summons under Section 50 of the PMLA to them for their appearance in New Delhi, rather than their hometown/ place of domicile i.e. Kolkata. 

The SC bench of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma dismissed the appeals. It said, “...Rs. 168 Crores were transferred through vouchers to Delhi and Overseas, which clearly established adequate nexus of the offence and the offenders with the territory of Delhi. We therefore do not find any illegality in the summons issued by the respondent-ED summoning the Appellants to its Office at Delhi, which also has the territorial jurisdiction, a part of the offence having been allegedly committed by the accused persons as alleged in the complaint. It is also not disputed that the Appellant No.1 being a Member of Parliament has also an official residence at Delhi.” 

During the proceedings, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal represented Abhishek Banerjee, Senior Advocates Dr. AM Singhvi and Gopal Sankaranarayanan appeared for Rujira Banerjee whereas Additional Solicitor General SV Raju and Advocate Zoheb Hossain represented the ED.