The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday issued a summons to Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on October 3 in connection with the school jobs scam in Kolkata.
The fresh summons by the central agency on the day when Mr. Banerjee is scheduled to lead his party’s protests in Delhi has picked up a political row with the State’s ruling party accusing the BJP government at the Centre of ‘political vendetta’ and attempts to foil the protests.
The summons has been issued for investigation in the school job to Mr. Banerjee and the CEO of a company Leaps and Bounds. The Trinamool leader has been asked to appear before the ED office in Kolkata.
Mr. Banerjee took to social media platform ‘X’ and shared a photograph of the summon sent to him by ED. “Now, today yet again they have served me another summons to appear before them on a day when the protest agitation for West Bengal’s rightful dues is scheduled in Delhi on 3rd Oct. This stark revelation unequivocally exposes those who are truly perturbED, rattlED and scarED!,” the Trinamool leader said.
He also pointed out that earlier this month, the ED summoned him on a day (September 13) coinciding with an important coordinating meeting of INDIA (Opposition Bloc) in Delhi. “I dutifully appeared and complied with the served summons,” he added.
Prior to this, Mr. Banerjee had appeared before the agency on four occasions in connection with the school job scam and coal pilferage scam. In May this year, he was questioned by the CBI for nine hours in the school jobs scam.
The Trinamool Congress also took to social media and added, “Our voices haven’t even echoed in Delhi, yet they already look perturbed”. The Trinamool leadership had called for this protest at Delhi in July this year and the party’s gathering aimed against the denial of funds under MGNREGA and PM Awas Yojana in the State. Mr. Banerjee, along with other party MPs, MLAs and leaders will pay their respects to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in the national capital on October 2 on his birth anniversary. The delegation is expected to meet Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh on October 3 and raise the issue of denial of funds under MGNREGA and PM Awaas Yojana.
The development comes days after Calcutta High Court Judge Amrita Sinha came down heavily on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and said that she could “smell something” and that “all is not well” with the ongoing probe.
The Court pointed out that the list of assets provided by Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee appeared to be “grossly incomplete” and asked why the agency has not summoned other directors of the company Leaps and Bounds. Meanwhile, according to sources in ED , the agency has issued a summons to other members of the Banerjee family who served as the directors of the company.
The High Court on September 22 had directed the ED not to take any coercive action against Mr. Banerjee at this stage of investigation in connection with the school job scam. Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, however, did not quash the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), equivalent to an FIR, filed by the ED which had references to Diamond Harbour MP. The ED had filed an ECIR after the arrest and subsequent interrogation of Sujay Krishna Bhadra alias ‘Kalighater Kaku (Uncle from Kalighat)’ in July this year. The ECIR mentions that Mr. Bhadra, who looked after the finance related matters of Mr. Banerjee, was very close to him.
