The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday grilled the Trinamool Youth Congress president Saayoni Ghosh for eleven hours with regard to the West Bengal Teachers' Recruitment Scam and has summoned her again for questioning on July 8. While talking to the media after coming out of the ED office, Ghosh said that she has cooperated with the central probe agency and will continue to do so. During the questioning, she also submitted some documents to help with the interrogation, reported news agency ANI.
Earlier, the ED issued a summon to Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to appear for questioning on June 13 with regard to the same matter. In response, the TMC leader wrote to the ED over his inability to appear before the agency. In the letter, he wrote that he is busy owing to upcoming Panchayat elections in the state which are scheduled to be held on July 8.
His letter addressed to the ED's Assistant Director read, "At present, I am not in Kolkata and travelling as part of a statewide yatra to connect with the people of West Bengal. Further, since the Panchayat elections for the state have been declared to be held on 8th July, I am engaged in preparing for the same. Most of the information/documents sought for are already available with appropriate government authorities/departments..."
In May, he was questioned for over 9 hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same Teachers' Recruitment Scam. Trinamool Congress MP Shatrughan Sinha on Friday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for harassing the opposition parties by resorting to use central agencies. He alleged that this was the Centre's "desperate attempt for revenge," as reported by ANI.
He added, "Some people are there, and some agencies that are there are not doing the right thing; they are trying unsuccessfully to harass many people, especially the opposition."