Emerging from the Enforcement Directorate office after facing an examination in connection with the school recruitment scam case which lasted for over nine hours, Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee stood inside the agency’s office premises and dared the ED to arrest him and produce evidence against him in court.

Confirming that he continues to remain the CEO of Leaps and Bounds, the company which is under the agency’s scanner for holding what the agency called “dubious transactions”, Banerjee said: “Let them first prove that my company has been a beneficiary of 10 paise from corruption. The onus is on them to prove that Sujoy Krishna Bhadra (one of the prime suspects in the scam) functioned as my conduit.”

“Why isn’t the agency submitting evidence against me in court, despite the court repeatedly asking for them, if they are so sure about my involvement? They have been asking the same set of questions about my company which they had asked while probing the coal and cattle cases,” Banerjee said while refusing to divulge the details of what exactly transpired during the nine-hour questioning session.

“The essence of these questioning sessions were, till before this, zero. Now it has slid further to minus two,” the leader said maintaining that the exercise was a “total waste of time”.

Lambasting the BJP for “misusing agencies for political vendetta”, Banerjee alleged that the day’s summons was the BJP’s way of licking wounds for the party’s loss in the Dhupguri bypolls. “That’s why the agency selected the day I was supposed to attend the coordination committee meeting of the INDIA bloc. The only purpose was to disrupt my political activities,” he said adding, “They should realize they wouldn’t get Dhupguri back by making the ED issue summons to me in this manner.”

“I am ready to sit through the agency examinations for 24 hours straight. But they won’t succeed in cowing me down. My spine is not for sale," the leader said while asserting one cannot hope for justice from the central probe agencies who are “out to please their political bosses” until a trail starts in court.

“I am willing to bow before the power of the people but not before the people in power,” Banerjee declared.

Holding the agency responsible for conducting a “political witch hunt”, Banerjee questioned why agency raids only take place in Opposition-ruled states but never in states like Gujarat where fugitives like Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who are accused of duping the nation of thousands of crores hail from.

“When INDIA topples the NDA from power, those using agencies to unleash political vendetta would be paid back in their own medicine,” he warned.

Banerjee also lashed out at Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and demanded his arrest. “Everyone has seen him accepting money on TV,” Banerjee said referring to the Narada sting operation. “Once he switched camps, he was not only never arrested, the agencies never issued him a single summons. That probe is also a hogwash,” he added.

“I have no issues if all the leaders seen in that operation accepting bribes are arrested by the CBI. But it should start with Suvendu first,” Trinamul’s heir-apparent demanded.

Commenting on the India versus Bharat debate, Banerjee said, “It’s nothing more than a distraction orchestrated by the BJP to take people’s attention away from the real issues which confront the people of this country like inflation, hate-mongering on religious and caste grounds, nation’s economy in a shambles and border issues where a China map claims large parts of Arunachal Pradesh as its own.”