‘Stigma on judiciary’: Banerjee slams ex-judge, BJP nominee Abhijit Gangopadhyay

Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday hit out at the former Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay by calling him a stigma on the judiciary. 

Gangopadhyay had in March joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is a candidate from East Midnapore district’s Tamluk. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has fielded Debangshu Bhattacharya, a youth leader.

“You are a stigma on the judiciary,” the TMC chairperson said at a Lok Sabha campaign rally in Tamluk, without naming the former judge even once in her speech.

Gangopadhyay, who ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2022 to probe the alleged bribe-for-job scam in the school education department in West Bengal, resigned from service on March 5, five months before retirement, and joined the BJP on March 7.

While talking to the media on March 5, he said: “I approached BJP and BJP approached me over the last seven days. That’s why I was on leave during this period. I stopped adjudicating so that nobody can raise an allegation.”

Slamming Gangopadhyay, Banerjee said, “How can you expect a man who sat on the (judge’s) chair and talked to BJP over the phone and worked for a political party to deliver justice?”

The alleged education department scam has triggered a fresh row across Bengal since Monday, when the Calcutta high court cancelled the appointment of all 25,753 people, empanelled in 2016 for teaching and non-teaching jobs at secondary and higher secondary schools. These people have hit the streets in thousands demanding justice.

Gangopadhyay demanded Banerjee’s resignation after Monday’s judgement. 

Banerjee alleged at the rally that while serving as judge, Gangopadhyay created the employment crisis under instructions from the BJP.

“The man contesting this seat thinks this too is a court. He is asking people to resign. You are a stigma on the judiciary. You should hide your shame. You have no right to talk to people. You stalled a few thousand appointments under instructions from the BJP. What will happen to these young people?” Banerjee said.

The CM alleged that Monday’s order was passed under instructions from the BJP because school teachers are deployed to conduct elections and polling booths are set up at educational institutions. 

“I am not saying anything against any specific judge but who will run the schools now? The plan is to stop these people from doing election duty so they (BJP) can bring in central forces for that job,” said Banerjee. 

In May 2022, Gangopadhyay ordered the CBI to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021.

The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of Rs.5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which started a parallel probe into the case, arrested then-education minister Partha Chatterjee in July 2022. Around a dozen TMC leaders and government officials have also been arrested since then.

Banerjee’s nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is also a suspect in the education department scam, according to the federal agencies.

In April 2023, Gangopadhyay ordered the CBI to probe a suspected recruitment scam in civic bodies as well. Both CBI and ED have told the Supreme Court that the two scams are related.

Since Communist Party of India (Marxist) Rajya Sabha member and lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya represented a sizeable section of the education scam victims before Gangopadhyay’s bench, he too was targeted by Banerjee on Thursday. Gangopadhyay told the media after leaving the service that when he started practising law at the high court, Bhattacharya was his senior.

Mamata said, “You said you were junior to Bikash Bhattacharya who takes away jobs from people. I don’t know if you are senior or junior to the traitor.”

She dared Gangopadhyay to face TMC’s Tamluk candidate Debangshu Bhattacharya, a youth front leader. 

HT could not contact Gangopadhyay till Thursday evening despite several attempts as he was busy with his campaign. 

Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari, however, countered Mamata’s statement during a rally in Purulia district.

“Mamata Banerjee is responsible for this employment crisis. It is only a matter of time before the slippers (Banerjee’s signature footwear) will be in jail and so will be the nephew’s army that took bribes from job applicants,” Adhikari said. 

The Bengal chief minister also accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of holding the polls in seven phases in Bengal under instructions from the BJP.

“Polls are over in Tamil Nadu whereas in Bengal it is being held in seven phases in this excruciating heat. Is it being done so that BJP leaders can take it easy while millions suffer in this heat? What was the need to hold the polls in seven phases? EC will do whatever the BJP says. I can’t find any other explanation,” she claimed.