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Calcutta High Court concludes hearing of Abhishek Banerjee's plea against CBI, ED

The Enforcement Directorate had summoned Banerjee for the first time in the case after Kuntal Ghosh, one of the arrested accused, wrote to the CBI judge and the police alleging that ED officials were forcing him to implicate the Trinamul leader in the alleged school jobs scam

Tapas Ghosh, Debraj Mitra Kolkata Published 21.09.23, 07:48 AM
Abhishek Banerjee

Abhishek Banerjee File picture

The high court on Wednesday concluded its hearing of a petition by Trinamul Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee seeking the quashing of proceedings against him by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that are trying to link him to the alleged jobs scam in state-aided schools.

Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, however, has yet to deliver the verdict.

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On September 13, the ED questioned Banerjee for around nine hours regarding the alleged irregularities.

The ED had summoned Banerjee for the first time in the case after Kuntal Ghosh, one of the arrested accused, wrote to the CBI judge and the police alleging that ED officials were forcing him to implicate the Trinamul leader in the case.

After receiving summons by the ED in July, Abhishek moved court, claiming that it was politically motivated and the only intention was to harass him.

The Diamond Harbour MP has also said that the ED had earlier tried to implicate him in coal and cattle smuggling cases and harassed him in the name of interrogation several times.

Both the ED and the CBI had opposed the prayer to quash the proceedings. The agencies could summon anybody in any case and a summons does not necessarily mean that the person would be arrested during the interrogation, the agencies had told the court.

The last summons to Banerjee was to question him after Sujay Bhadra Sujay Bhadra, also referred to as Kalighater kaku, one of the accused in the case who is in judicial custody, said he had worked for the Trinamul second-in-command.

The court is likely to deliver its judgment on Banerjee’s plea by next week.

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