Enforcement Directorate on Thursday summoned Trinamool MP and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with its probe into the teachers' recruitment scam on June 13. After the summons, West Bengal CM's nephew stated that he can attend the ED summons only after the state panchayat elections are over, news agency PTI reported. "If they (ED) want any documents from me, I will send them to them. But I want to clearly say that for the next month, I have no time to spare for 10-12 hours of questioning. Our program ends on the 16th and the panchayat elections have been announced, which will conclude on the 8th July. They will question me for several hours and the net result would be zero. After the polls get over, if you summon me I will appear before you," he said.
Abhishek received a summons while his spouse Rujira was under investigation by the investigative agency for involvement in a coal theft case. Rujira underwent an interrogation at the ED office in Kolkata that lasted for approximately four hours on Thursday.
Speaking with PTI, an ED official stated: “Abhishek Banerjee has been asked to appear before our officers on June 13 at our city office at 11 am. We have called him for questioning for the alleged illegal appointments in different state-run and -aided schools."
Simultaneously with the announcement of the panchayat election in the state, the summons was also issued. On Thursday, Rajiv Sinha, the state election commissioner, announced that the West Bengal panchayat election is scheduled to be held on July 8.
Abhishek claimed that his family was purposely being harassed to prevent him from carrying out his outreach campaign prior to the West Bengal panchayat elections, as his wife was detained and interrogated at length for being prevented from boarding a flight to the UAE.
On Monday, Rujira and her two children were halted at Kolkata airport while en route to the UAE. The agency served her with a summons mandating her appearance before them at 11 am on June 8th.
Both the CBI and the ED have previously interrogated Rujira as part of the investigation.
Officials stated that the CBI was investigating a corruption scandal relating to the unlawful extraction of coal from abandoned mines owned by Eastern Coalfields. The value of the mined coal is thought to be in the range of several billion rupees.
The Hawala route was under investigation by the ED as they suspected that the crime profits were transferred using this method.
The TMC claimed that the ED's move was motivated by political vendetta from the BJP.
“Whenever Abhishek Banerjee was summoned, he cooperated. But the way his family is being harassed is shameful. This is nothing but political vendetta by the BJP,” TMC’s state general secretary Kunal Ghosh was quoted by PTI in its report.
“The BJP is afraid of the TMC’s ‘Nabojowar’ campaign ahead of the panchayat polls, and also wants to divert the attention from the train accident,” he claimed.