TMC MP Dev and Ex-MP Mahua Moitra Summoned By ED For Questioning

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned former TMC MP Mahua Moitra, sitting MP Dipak Adhikari, aka Dev and leader Mukul Roy to the Delhi office in connection with three separate cases. The notices were issued on Thursday, while Mahua Moitra has been asked to appear of February 19 for examination in connection to a probe into foreign currencies, Dev has been asked to appear on February 21 in connection with the ongoing probe into alleged cattle smuggling case. BJP MLA Mukul Roy who switched over to TMC after Bengal assembly election in 2021 has been asked to appear on February 16 in connection a probe into with an alleged ponzi scam. 

Dev has been in news off late ever since he started sending fillers about his unwillingness to continue in politics, setting abuzz speculations if he too would switch ahead of Lok Sabha elections, like the series of defections witnessed ahead of 2021 Bengal assembly polls. The ED summon to the actor turned MP from Ghatal constituency came barely four days after he announced that he will contest elections and not severing ties with Trinamool Congress. Dev had a meeting with TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee last Sunday before all speculations were put to rest. Trinamool Congress has called it vendetta and harassment by BJP after the actor “refused” to quit TMC. 

“Dev was being pressurerised by the BJP and its senior leaders. He is being harassed because he refused to budge. Jo jhukega nahi, uske ghar me agency bhej dega BJP (Whoever refuses to kowtow, BJP will send agencies at his or place),” said TMC spokes person Kunal Ghosh, further adding that Abhishek Banerjee too has faced “similar harassment”. TMC had previously claimed that Dev was being forced to join the saffron party ahead of elections. He was previously examined by CBI in February 2022 in connection with the same case, after which he had denied any links with the alleged smuggling. 

Mahua Moitra was expelled from Lok Sabha last year on charges of “breach of ethics”, following complaints from BJP MP Nishikant Dubey accusing Moitra of asking questions in the parliament targeting PM Modi and businessman Gautam Adani at the behest of the business interest ion businessman Hiranandani. ED has summoned her in connection to a probe under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) contravention case. “I thought Ram Lalla had taken care of 400 seats in 2024. So why is BJP desperately grabbing at the very same netas they always denounced as “corrupt”? I mean at this rate they’ll soon want me.” Mahua Moitra posted on ‘X’, hours after former Congress Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan Joined BJP on February 13. Sources say Moitra’s has already sent a response to the notice through her lawyer seeking further clarity about the case and the need to probe her. 

Earlier in the day on Thursday, while speaking on the floor of the assembly in Kolkata, TMC supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said: “They are using central agencies to arrest dissidents all over the country but this is all being done through illegal means. BJP is forgetting this can’t last long. They have crossed the ‘Laxman Rekha’. The BJP doesn’t just do du-nombori (colloquially used to refer to ordinary illegalities), it engages in chaar-nombori (enhanced illegality).”