Emerging from the CBI office at Nizam Palace after spending over nine-and-a-half hours with his questioners, Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said that the net result of the whole exercise was a “big zero” and that it was a “complete waste of time” for both him and the agency.

Significantly, though, Banerjee revealed that 90 per cent of the agents suspected to be involved in the school recruitment corruption, who he was asked to identify by agency officers, hailed either from East Midnapore or Murshidabad districts.

“The agency should now look into the man who was in charge of these two districts on behalf of the party and under whose instructions these agents raised money from aspiring teachers,” Banerjee said, pointing fingers at erstwhile TMC and current BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, but without naming him.

Banerjee was summoned by the CBI following a Calcutta High Court order in connection with a set of purported letters which scam-accused and jailed former Trinamul youth leader Kuntal Ghosh had written, alleging he was being coerced by ED and CBI officers to name Abhishek as a scam beneficiary. Prior to writing those letters, Ghosh had levelled the same allegation before the media outside court premises.

The reason why the High Court granted permission to the agencies to involve Banerjee in their investigation into the recruitment scam is that it found the timing of Ghosh’s allegation, which came immediately after Banerjee had made a similar allegation from a public meeting in Calcutta, a suspect.

“I never named Kuntal Ghosh from my meeting on 29 March. I named TMC leaders Madan Mitra and Kunal Ghosh who were jailed in connection with the Saradha Ponzi scam and who came out and shared with me their experience that they too were pressured by the agencies to name me as a beneficiary in exchange for their freedom,” Banerjee said after his questioning session on Saturday.

“The media people who took that question to Kuntal the next day in court would be in a better position to say why Kuntal said what he said, not me,” Banerjee added.

Banerjee, who had previously moved for a stay on the Single Bench order before a Division Bench and was denied an urgent hearing, confirmed that he has already filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court challenging the court order.

“Under normal circumstances, I could have refused to respond to the CBI summons since I have already moved Supreme Court, but I didn’t. I expected that the CBI, which is said to be the country’s premier investigating agency, would show the courtesy and decorum to provide me with at least 48-72 hours time to appear. They didn’t despite knowing I was in the districts for my prescheduled political programme. I reported at their office exactly when I was asked to,” Banerjee said, alleging that the whole “exercise was devised to disrupt” the grassroots outreach campaign he was currently conducting.

“This wouldn’t have happened to me had I joined the BJP. But it would much rather die with my head held high like a tiger than live as their pet dog,” Banerjee declared.

“The officers who are conducting these fruitless exercises should resign and so should their political bosses who are controlling them,” he demanded and stated that 90 per cent of the questions asked were “bogus”.

“I do not blame the agency. They are acting under political pressure from their masters,” the leader said and questioned why the agency never called BJP leaders like Dilip Ghosh, whose property documents were recovered from scam-accused Prasanna Roy’s house, or Suvendu Adhikari, who was seen accepting cash on camera in the Narada sting operation case.

Banerjee also trained his gun on opposition leaders like CPI-M’s Sujan Chakraborty and Congress’s Adhir Chowdhury who were named by Saradha chief Sudipta Sen as scam beneficiaries in his letter. “Several years have passed since Sudipta Sen wrote that letter. Why did the CBI not call them for questioning even once? If I can be summoned on the basis of a letter Kuntal Ghosh has written, why can’t these leaders and Suvendu Adhikari be summoned despite having been named by Sudipta Sen?” Banerjee asked.

“That’s because BJP is the washing machine where all sins get washed away and the central agencies like CBI and ED act as its detergent powder,” he declared.

“On the very same day I had spoken about central agency coercion from my public meeting, home minister Amit Shah confessed at a TV channel conclave that the CBI had pressured him to name Narendra Modi during one of its earlier investigations. Will the agency now have the guts to summon Shah?” the Trinamul leader lashed out.

Asked whether he was exercising discretion in inducting new party members in the wake of the large-scale corruption charges Trinamul was facing, Banerjee said, “It is difficult for us to cross-check backgrounds of every new party member because the number would run into lakhs each year. But we are trying to do background checks on those to whom we are allotting portfolios or giving important responsibilities. But that cannot be a foolproof exercise.”

“What’s hilarious and unfortunate at the same time is that the BJP keeps inducting people in their ecosystem who are named as prime accused in corruption cases in the books of the agencies which the party is running,” he alleged.

Asked to respond to the Centre’s decision to withdraw Rs 2000 currency notes, the TMC MP said: “Modi had asked for 50 days to rid the country of black money after announcing demonetization. Seven years have passed and black money circulation has increased manifold, both within the country and in foreign banks. This time he has fired the gun putting it on RBI’s shoulders. But people understand the game. Their Karnataka experience will get repeated in 2024.”

Sharply criticizing the Centre’s move to build a new Parliament building, the MP said, “We do not need a 20,000 crore central vista project right now or a Rs 8,000 crore aircraft for the Prime Minister. These things could have waited for later. The Centre should have first released the Rs 7,000 crore they have withheld from the people of Bengal who need food in their stomachs and a roof over their heads.”

“Politics should be done on Roti-Kapda-Makan and not on Ram Mandir and Central Vista,” Banerjee declared.