Calcutta HC rejects contempt of court petition against ED by Maneka Gambhir

Kolkata, Sep 30 (IANS) A single- judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday dismissed the contempt of court petition filed against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by Maneka Gambhir, sister-in-law of the Trinamool Congress's national general secretary and party Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee.

While dismissing the petition, the single-judge bench of Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya observed that neither the ED nor the immigration department at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport had resorted to any sort of contempt of court by denying Maneka Gambhir to board a flight for travelling Bangkok on the night of September 10.

Justice Bhattacharya also accepted the argument of the ED counsel, M.V. Raju that the refusal to allow Gambhir at the Bangkok-bound flight was an unintentional error and cannot be considered as contempt of court.

To recall, on August 30, the same single-judge bench of Justice Bhattacharya, ruled that the ED would not be able to adopt a cohesive action against Gambhir till further order.

After being denied the permission to board the Bangkok-bound flight on the night of September 10, Gambhir filed a contempt of court petition at the Calcutta High Court saying that since the single- judge bench had already barred the ED to take any cohesive action against her, her denial to board the flight tantamounts to contempt of court.

Meanwhile, on September 12, Gambhir went to the ED's central government office (CGO) complex office at Salt Lake and faced a marathon questioning by the central agency sleuths in connection with the multi-crore coal smuggling scam.