Singur: Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, whose wife Rujira was allegedly stopped from boarding a UAE-bound flight on Monday, said the "harassment" of his family was aimed at stopping his outreach campaign ahead of the panchayat elections in West Bengal.


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Addressing a press conference in Singur in Hooghly district, he dared the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to arrest him or his wife. "I will not bow my head before anyone apart from the masses. The ED has summoned my wife, as they (BJP) want this outreach campaign to stop. The BJP is afraid of the public support for the campaign, and that is why they are harassing my family," he claimed.


Abhishek, the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, claimed that the ED's action of stopping his wife from flying abroad violated a Supreme Court order, which stated that there were no foreign travel restrictions on the couple.


"I dare the ED to arrest me or my wife if they have any proof of corruption. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP can't fight us politically, so they are harassing us. If they want, they can also arrest my kids," he said.


The TMC MP said he would move to court against the "violation" of the SC order. Rujira Banerjee was allegedly stopped from boarding a UAE-bound flight citing a "lookout" notice by the ED that asked her to appear before them on June 8, her lawyer said.


Sources said Rujira had reached Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata with her two children around 7 am and was stopped before immigration. Abhishek is touring the state since April as part of his Trinamooley Nabojowar (New Wave in Trinamool) campaign ahead of the panchayat elections.