Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the investigation into the West Bengal school jobs scam.
The Diamond Harbour MP had to skip the coordination committee meeting of the Opposition bloc Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) scheduled on Wednesday in Delhi, as he appeared before the ED in Kolkata. Mr. Banerjee arrived at the ED office at about 11.30 a.m. and was questioned for over eight hours.
Earlier in the day, the Trinamool Congress from its official social media handles said that the Bharatiya Janata Party continues to use the ED as a ‘political tool’ to target Abhishek Banerjee.
“The BJP uses central agencies to fight against me. Such threats and intimidation by using CBI and ED against me won’t deter me from public service or reaching out to the masses,” Trinamool Congress quoted Mr. Banerjee as saying.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also described the summons to her nephew as a tool of “political vendetta’.”
Last month the ED conducted searches at the premises of the firm, Leaps and Bounds, where Banerjee was the director of the company from 2012-14.
“Sujay Krishna Bhadra was also a director in this company from April 2012 to March 2016. Abhishek Banerjee, MP from TMC is the Chief Executive Officer of M/s Leaps and Bounds Private Limited and was also a director from April 2012 to January 2014,” the ED said in a statement last month.
Sujay Krishna Bhadra alias Kalighater Kaku (Uncle from Kalighat) was arrested on May 30, for his alleged role in the scam.
The name of Mr. Banerjee had come up during the investigation of West Bengal School recruitment scam when Kuntal Ghosh, an accused in the scam arrested by ED earlier this year said that he was being pressurised by the agencies to name Abhishek Banerjee in the recruitment scam. Mr. Ghosh had written a letter from the prison mentioning the issue.
The recruitment scam came to fore in July 2022 with the ED arresting former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee for his alleged involvement in the scam. Since then the ED and the CBI have arrested over a dozen of accused including MLAs of the Trinamool Congress, officials of State Education Department and agents who allegedly collected money from job seekers.
The scam involves providing jobs as teachers and non-teaching staff in State run schools in exchange for kickbacks thus subverting the recruitment process. Mr. Banerjee has in the past been questioned by the ED and CBI in connection with the coal pilferage scam.
