CBI grills TMC's Abhishek Banerjee for over nine hours in connection with teacher recruitment scam

While the Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the criminal aspect of the scam, the ED is looking into the money trail involved in the alleged irregularities

The CBI, on Saturday, questioned Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee in a day-long interrogation, complying with a Calcutta High Court order concerning an ongoing probe into teacher recruitment scam. The MP was in the agency’s premises for over nine and a half hours.

On Friday, the CBI had served Banerjee a notice, asking him to appear at its office in Kolkata. The Trinamool leader – who had shared the notice on Twitter on Friday – had to pause his ongoing two-month-long mass outreach programme. He stated that he will appear, and will resume his outreach programme on May 22.

The notice by the CBI to Banerjee is preceded by a sequence of court orders. Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court, earlier, had given the agencies permission to question him, if required, over the probe into school recruitment scam.

With an appeal in the Supreme Court and its subsequent intervention, the case was reassigned to Justice Amrita Sinha in the Calcutta High Court. There was, however, no relief for him, as far as the earlier order was concerned.

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Before visiting the CBI office on Saturday, Banerjee wrote a letter to the agency saying that he was “shocked” at the notice that offered him less than a day’s time to appear before the agency. He also informed the CBI about having preferred a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court, challenging the order of Justice Amrita Sinha, dated May 18, and the same shall be mentioned for urgent hearing before the Court on Monday, or when the Court’s business permits.

Talking to reporters after leaving the agency’s office, Banerjee said that the agency gave him inadequate time for appearing. He said that he cooperated, and responded to the questions, however, those who interrogated wasted theirs’, as well as his time.

Referring to cases that remain unsolved with the investigating agency, Banerjee said that the net result of such investigations is zero.

He added that 90 per cent of people he was asked about concerned two specific districts. He questioned why the person in-charge of these districts on behalf of the party (Trinamool), then, was not being interrogated. In this oblique reference, he was, presumably, pointing fingers at a Trinamool leader who later changed his political affiliation.

“Ninety per cent (of the) questions were bogus,” he said, and reiterated, daring the agency to arrest him.

Banerjee alleged that the idea behind the current development was to disturb his outreach programme, which the BJP is failing to grasp. He alleged that the ruling party at the Centre was inducting people who have cases against them.

Earlier in the day, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee in a tweet recalled that in 2011 on this day, the party had replaced the 34-year-old Left government in the state. Renewing the pledge of her “Ma Mati Manush government”, Banerjee stated: “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.”