CBI, ED should quiz Abhishek Banerjee, says Calcutta HC; TMC reacts
The judge was hearing a plea filed by expelled TMC youth wing leader Kuntal Ghosh, one of the prime accused, alleging that officers of the two federal agencies were pressuring him to name Abhishek Banerjee in his statement
KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) should question Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee in the bribe-for-job case, Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay observed on Thursday, according to lawyers who attended the hearing.
Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC’s general secretary, is the nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The judge was hearing a plea filed by expelled TMC youth wing leader Kuntal Ghosh, one of the prime accused, alleging that officers of the two federal agencies were pressuring him to name Abhishek Banerjee in his statement.
“Justice Gangopadhyay said no police complaint and first information report (FIR) can be lodged against any officer of ED and CBI at any police station in West Bengal in connection with this case,” said lawyer Firdous Samim who is representing victims of the job scam in the state school education department.
Kuntal Ghosh, who was arrested by ED on January 21, is lodged at Presidency correctional home in Kolkata. He filed the complaint at the court and the city’s Hastings police station on April 6.
Abhishek Banerjee also made a similar point without naming Kuntal Ghosh at a TMC meeting in Kolkata on March 29.
The high court judge observed that since Ghosh and Banerjee made similar allegations, they should be questioned together.
Samim said: “Justice Gangopadhyay observed that officials of the two agencies should question Ghosh and Banerjee. He wanted to know the identity of those who are meeting Ghosh at the Presidency correctional home. He ordered the state government to submit before him the visitors register and footage recorded by security cameras at the correctional home between March 23 and April 6.”
The judge wants these records to be placed before him by April 20, Samim said.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh reacted sharply to the judge’s observations during the proceedings.
“Justice Gangopadhyay is a respected citizen but he is misusing his chair. He has turned into a cadre of a political party only to seek publicity. He has targeted Abhishek Banerjee and the TMC,” Kunal Ghosh said, hinting at opposition parties.
“If he charges me with contempt of court, I will face him in court. If he sentences me, I will go to jail,” Ghosh added.
In May 2022, justice Gangopadhyay ordered CBI to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021. The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.
The suspected involvement of TMC leaders surfaced when ED, which was probing the money laundering aspect of the case, arrested the then-education minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee on July 23, 2022. Chatterjee was subsequently dropped from the cabinet.
On Thursday, justice Gangopadhyay again expressed his dissatisfaction with the investigation, saying it lacked pace. The judge removed a CBI officer from the probe team on January 31 citing the same reason.
The TMC last month expelled Kuntal Ghosh and another leader, Shantanu Banerjee. a functionary in Hooghly district’s zilla parishad, who was arrested on March 10. He was earlier a state vice-president of the TMC youth wing.