The CBI on Saturday questioned Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee for over nine hours in connection with the probe into the irregularities in appointments in government-aided schools.
The Diamond Harbour MP was questioned at the Nizam Palace office of the central agency till late in the evening.
Amid speculation on the next course of action by the agency, the day saw a war of words between Bengal’s ruling party, which claimed that Abhishek was targeted by the central agency, and the Opposition that accused him of trying to run away from being probed.
“The agency-raj of an authoritarian government at the centre makes our task challenging, but millions over the country are with us in our march. Long live 20 May,” chief minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted within minutes of her nephew Abhishek entering Nizam House to face the questioning.
The summons to Abhishek in the recruitment scam was triggered by an allegation by suspended Trinamul leader Kuntal Ghosh, whom the ED arrested in January for his alleged role in the recruitment irregularities in schools, that the central agencies were exerting pressure on him to implicate Abhishek in the case. Besides making the allegation in front of the media, Kuntal sent a letter to the special CBI judge stating that the central investigating agency was piling pressure on him to name some Trinamul leaders, including Abhishek.
Abhishek, who was in Bankura on Friday for his party’s mass outreach programme, turned up at the CBI’s Nizam Palace office in Calcutta minutes before 11am, the time that was set for him to appear in response to a summons. The Trinamul MP waved at those present before taking an elevator to reach the 14th floor, where the CBI’s Anti Corruption Branch office is housed.
While CBI officers remained tight-lipped aboutthe “examination”, insiders said the questioning began with a team of four officers questioning Abhishek.
“The team of four was made up of an officer of the rank of superintendent of police, a deputy superintendent of police and two inspectors,” said an insider.
The sources said Abhishek was asked whether he knew Kuntal and had met him on any occasion in the past. A better part of the examination centred around why Kuntal chose his name in the letter as the one whom the investigating agency was allegedly pressuring him to name, they said.
Abhishek apparently said he didn’t know the reason behind Kuntal naming him.
Before turning up for questioning, Abhishek wrote to the CBI of his decision to move the Supreme Court challenging the Calcutta High Court order which allowed the CBI and ED to question him.
In his letter to the CBI, Abhishek wrote: “At the very onset, I state that I am rather shocked to find that the notice under reference was served upon me on 19.05.2023 in the afternoon, directing me to appear before your office at Kolkata at 11.00am on 20.05.2023, providing me less than a day’s time to comply.”
Stating he was in the middle of a two-month-long state-wide yatra, Abhishek added that while he wished to cooperate with the agencies and hence was obeying the summons, it should be noted that he “preferred a Special Leave Petition before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, thereby challenging the order dated 18.05.2023 (passed by Calcutta High Court)”.
Around the time the CBI questioned Abhishek, ED teams carried searches in 10 locations across Behala and South 24-Parganas in connection with its probe into irregularities in appointments in state-aided schools.
Additional reporting by Arkamoy Datta Majumdar
