Kolkata, Oct 4 : The Enforcement Directorate, probing the alleged teachers’ recruitment irregularities in the West Bengal government sponsored schools across the state, on Wednesday freshly summoned Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, asking him to attend before its investigation officials on October 9, official sources said.
Banerjee, who was summoned to appear on Tuesday (October 3) at the ED’s CGO Complex office, skipped the date as the Diamond Harbour MP was leading the party’s agitational programmes in New Delhi to protest the alleged Central government blockade of 100 days job funds and other centre assisted schemes for Bengal.
Banerjee’s counsels on Tuesday moved a division bench of Calcutta high court against its single bench order asking the ED not to hamper the probe in view of Banerjee’s reported statement to skip Tuesday’s summon and he would be in New Delhi on October 2 and 3.
The division bench headed by justice Soumen Sen and justice Uday Kumar had asked Banerjee’s advocate Kishore Dutta if his client (Banerjee) had informed the ED officially whether he would not be able to attend the summon because of his political programs, court sources said.
” The judges told the Banerjee’s counsel that his client could have informed the ED officially and give another date for his appearance,” the sources added.
Accordingly the ED called Banerjee to appear before its investigation officials on October 9 with relevant documents and the central probe agency would submit its report before Calcutta High court on the following day (October 10).
Banerjee has been asked to appear on October 9 at 11 am at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake. Another source said the ED also sent summon notice to Banerjee’s wife Rujira Banerjee to appear on October 11.
The ED also summoned Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee ‘s parents — Amit Banerjee and Lata Banerjee — for questioning in connection with its investigation into the alleged school jobs on October 6 and 7 respectively.
The parents and wife of Banerjee are said to be directors of the Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd, which is under the scanner of the agency. Calcutta High Court’s single bench judge Justice Amrita Sinha in an order last week had directed the ED to submit the income reports and documents of all the directors of the Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd in which the TMC GS is the CEO, sources added.
