KolkataTrinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee refused to comply with the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday in connection with the alleged teacher recruitment scam. The Anti-Money Laundering Agency had summoned the TMC leader to its office on June 13. Addressing a public meeting, Banerjee said that in her last appearance before the ED, she had requested the officials not to call her to account in the next few days. Took a scheduled TMC trip.
Banerjee said she was not accusing the ED officials of summoning her on that date as they were bound by duty. He said that he is ready to send any documents that the ED may ask for, but he is so busy at the moment that he can be questioned for hours in his office.
Banerjee said, “I am not blaming the ED officials as they are only doing their duty. Their political masters are having sleepless nights because of the massive success of the Nobojovar Yatra.”
“Our program ends on 16th June and panchayat elections have been announced, which will end on 8th July. They will interrogate me for many hours and the result will be zero. After the elections are over, if you call me I will appear before you,” the TMC general secretary said.
Mentioning that she is ready to follow the ED’s probe, Banerjee said, “It is my duty to face the ED and support them in their investigation but I will not go for questioning now.”
The TMC general secretary also said that ED officials had questioned his wife Rujira for four hours on Thursday in connection with the coal theft case. His wife who was on her way to Dubai with their two children was stopped from boarding the flight at the airport and was summoned by the ED at 11 am the same day.
Banerjee said that even after recording statements at the ED office for a long time, no “results” have come out. “This is nothing but harassment by the ruling party,” he said.
Banerjee targeted the central government and said that their double engine is ED and CBI.
“BJP’s double engine is ED and CBI. When one engine (CBI) has failed, now they are using the other engine,” he said.
Last month, Banerjee was questioned for over 9 hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the multi-crore recruitment scam in West Bengal schools.