New Delhi: CBI officials questioned TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee for over nine hours, who appeared before them on Saturday. Banerjee told reporters watching outside the CBI office at Nizam Palace here that the questioning was a waste of time for both her and the probe agency’s officers, but she “cooperated in whatever was asked”. “The CBI interrogated me for nine-and-a-half hours. It was a waste of time for them (CBI officials) and for me as well,” Banerjee said after coming out of the Nizam’s Palace. He claimed that the real reason he was called was because he refused to be a “pet dog of Delhi bosses” and that is why he has been “targeted”.
He also alleged that TMC leaders who were not ready to bow down were being harassed, while BJP leaders involved in various cases were being let free. Banerjee’s name had cropped up in a complaint filed by Kuntal Ghosh, a local businessman and an accused in the school job scam, in which he alleged that central probe agencies were pressurizing him to name Abhishek Banerjee in the case .
The nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee entered the CBI office at 10:58 am and came out around 8:40 am, “I don’t blame them (CBI officers) as they are working on the orders of the BJP.” However, such harassment will not deter me from continuing the public relations campaign or ending our political battle with the BJP.
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Reacting to the questioning of the MP and the allegations of the saffron party’s hand in it, BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, ‘The party has nothing to do with the CBI probe. If TMC leaders have nothing to hide then why are they so concerned about being called out and making such allegations?”
Abhishek said, “I challenge the CBI to arrest me if they have any evidence of corruption against me. They have been investigating many cases in Bengal for the last several years. If they have any evidence against me If so, they should arrest me.” The two-time TMC MP from Diamond Harbor has been questioned twice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the coal theft case in 2021 at the agency’s office in the national capital and in 2022 in Kolkata.
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CBI officials are learned to have asked the TMC leader on Saturday why Kuntal Ghosh alleged that he was being pressurized to name him. Abhishek is believed to have said that he has no idea about the reasons behind Ghosh’s statement. A senior CBI official told PTI that the TMC leader was questioned in three shifts.
As her nephew was being questioned by the CBI, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted that the Centre’s “agency-raj” had made her task of running the state challenging. Taking to Twitter, Banerjee said, “The agency-rule of an authoritarian government at the Center makes our work challenging, but millions of people across the country are with us.”
Before leaving for the probe agency’s offices, the TMC leader wrote a letter to the CBI informing him of his decision to move the Supreme Court challenging the high court order that allowed probe agencies CBI and ED to allows for enquiry. He wrote that I am shocked to know that the notice in question was served to me… I was given less than a day to comply.
Stating that he was in the midst of a two-month-long statewide tour to connect with the people of West Bengal, he said that while he wanted to cooperate with the agencies and was therefore obeying the summons, it should be noted that That he had “preferred a special leave petition before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India challenging the order dated 18.05.2023 (passed by the Calcutta High Court)”.
Earlier in the day, the Enforcement Directorate raided the residence of Sujay Krishna Bhadra, considered close to the TMC supremo, in connection with its probe into the school job scam, a central agency official said.
The official said the raids, which were still underway, were carried out at the beleaguered house of ‘Kalighat er Kaku’ (Kalighat’s uncle), as he was popularly known. Bhadra had appeared before the CBI on March 15 for his alleged involvement in illegal appointments made in various government and government-aided schools in West Bengal.
While the Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the criminal aspect of the scam, the ED is probing the money trail involved in the alleged irregularities in school recruitment.
Abhishek Banerjee, who was campaigning in West Bengal’s Bankura, went back to Kolkata on Friday night to answer the summons sent by the central probe agency. The probe agency’s summons came within 24 hours of the Calcutta High Court’s dismissal on Thursday, a petition filed by Banerjee seeking withdrawal of the court’s previous order, which said probe agencies like the CBI and the ED Teachers can interrogate them in the recruitment scam.