Maneka Gambhir files fresh petition in Calcutta HC to travel abroad

Kolkata, Oct 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) Maneka Gambhir, the sister-in-law of Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, on Monday filed a fresh petition in the Calcutta High Court for permission to travel of Bangkok to visit her aged and ailing mother.

The petition has been admitted to to the bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha and the matter will come up for hearing this week.

On October 20, the court's vacation bench of Justice Lapita Bandopadhyay refused to hear her plea on a fast-track basis.

Justice Bandopadhyay referred the matter to the regular bench and accordingly Gambhir filed the fresh petition on Monday.

On October 17, she appealed to vacation bench for permission to travel to Bangkok. However, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposed the request on grounds that another single judge bench of the court had already refused to entertain a similar plea.

On the night of September 10, the Immigration Department at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata did not allow Gambhir to board a flight to the Thai capital due to a lookout notice issued against her by the ED.

In response, she filed a contempt of court petition against the probe agency at the single judge bench of Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya.

Her contention was that when there was a prior court order barring the central agency from adopting any cohesive action against her, such a refusal amounted to contempt of court.

However on September 30, Justice Bhattacharya's bench dismissed the contempt of court petition and observed that neither the ED nor the Immigration Department had resorted to any sort of contempt of court by denying her the permission to board the flight.

Source: IANS