TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee grilled by ED for nine hours over teacher recruitment scam

KOLKATA: Hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee flew to Spain, her nephew Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with irregularities in recruitment to state aided schools and faced a marathon interrogation by the central agency for over nine hours.

Abhishek, also the TMC’s national general secretary, was served a summons by the central agency asking him to turn up at its office on Wednesday, the day he was scheduled to attend the first meeting of the 14-member coordination committee of the opposition bloc INDIA.

The second-in-command in the TMC is the party’s representative at the 14-member committee which is supposed to formulate the strategy of the 28-party bloc to take on the BJP for the upcoming general elections and devise a best-possible seat sharing formula to avoid the division of Opposition votes.

“I was summoned on the day of the INDIA bloc’s first coordination committee. Had they summoned me a day before or a day after, I could have attended the meeting. But the timing of the summons is a clear reflection of the TMC’s important role in the opposition bloc. Many allies of INDIA requested me to skip the summons and attend the meeting. I told them not to postpone the scheduled event as I have answers for all questions of the central agency,” said Abhishek after coming out of the ED’s office.

Abhishek challenged the ED asking the investigating agency to submit his statement given to the central agency before the court. He also described Wednesday’s interrogation as revenge for the BJP’s defeat in the Dhupguri Assembly by-election.

Abhishek reached the CGO Complex in Salt Lake, where the ED’s office is located around 11.35 am and came out around 8.50 pm. He went straight to the central agency’s office where a batch of the investigating agency’s officers were waiting for his arrival. TMC supporters assembled on both sides of the main entrance of the complex and central forces were deployed to guard the compound.

Senior ED officials said they wanted to question Abhishek in connection with the money trail linked to irregularities in recruitment to state-aided schools after one of the accused, Sujoykrishna Bhadra, who is presently in judicial custody, had said he worked for the TMC leader. “It was Bhadra who dropped Abhishek’s name. We want Abhishek to clarify his relation with Bhadra who allegedly dealt with the proceeds of the recruitment scam,” said an ED official.

The central investigating agency earlier had said Bhadra was the chief operating director of Leaps and Bounds Private Ltd, a company whose chief executive officer is Abhishek. The names of Abhishek’s parents feature as directors of the company.

While Mamata termed the ED’s action as BJP’s political vendetta, Abhishek said the central agency’s move was an example of the “timidity and vacuousness of the 56-inch chest model” hinting that the action reflected the Centre’s fear of the opposition bloc.