The Supreme Court on July 10 said it could not intervene in an Enforcement Directorate probe into the alleged role of Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee in the West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam case.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud refused to set aside a May 18 order of the Calcutta High Court that Mr. Banerjee should face the investigation and respond to the investigating agency’s summons to question him with regard to the case.
The apex court said the High Court had applied its mind to the need for an investigation into the allegations. The Bench said it would not choke the probe at the incipient stage.
The top court, however, said it was open for Mr. Banerjee to move the High Court with a petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to quash the case itself.
The Bench also deleted a direction to Mr. Banerjee to pay ₹25 lakh in costs.
Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, for Mr. Banerjee, submitted that such scams were “created to terrorise” certain people.
‘No connection with case’
Mr. Banerjee is a nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Mr. Singhvi said Mr. Banerjee had no connection with the case.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the West Bengal government, had in an earlier hearing alleged that these cases were “stage-managed”. He had referred to a separate case concerning liquor scam in Chhattisgarh in which the Central agencies were gunning for the Bhupesh Baghel government.
Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, for the ED, said the case in West Bengal was hardly “stage-managed”. “A Minister and his aide were found with large amounts of cash… The ED has the power of investigation. That power is unfettered, it cannot be usurped”, he said.
