Abhishek Banerjee appears before ED in Bengal school job case

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress’ general secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, on Monday turned up at the Enforcement Directorate office to face interrogation in the multi-crore cash-for-school-job case in West Bengal.

He was asked by the investigating officials of the central agency to appear for interrogation by noon on Monday. However, Abhishek, also the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, turned up at the ED’s Salt Lake office a little before 11 a.m., which was much before the scheduled deadline.

While entering the ED’s office, he refused to reply to any query from the waiting media persons.

There was no extra security at the CGO complex, and no special deployment of police or Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) was there on Monday.

Earlier during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime in West Bengal, Abhishek had turned up at the ED’s office to face interrogation in various cases. There were elaborate security arrangements both inside and outside the central government office (CGO) Complex at Salt Lake, where the ED regional office is located. Then, traffic movement in that area was majorly restricted, and the presence of media persons within the CGO complex was also restricted.

However, on Monday, it was a normal day at the CGO complex when he turned up for interrogation.

Incidentally, Abhishek Banerjee’s name was in the charge sheet filed by the CBI, which is conducting a parallel probe into the school job case. However, he was not named as an accused there. His name also appeared in the charge sheet filed by the ED in its investigation of the case.

In the ED chargesheet, the name of Leaps & Bounds Private Limited surfaced, of which Abhishek Banerjee was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) earlier.

The CBI probe in the Bengal school-job case was first ordered by the erstwhile Calcutta High Court judge, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who is currently the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member from Tamluk constituency in East Midnapore district.

Later, the ED also made a suo motu entry into the matter by registering the Enforcement Case Information Reports.

IANS