ED grilling meant to prevent me from attending INDIA meeting: Abhishek Banerjee

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress’ national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee has claimed that he was selectively chosen for interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday to ensure that he couldn't attend the first meeting of the coordination committee of the opposition INDIA bloc on the same day.

After stepping out of the ED office a little before 9 p.m. following a marathon grilling that lasted for nearly 10 hours, the Trinamool MP said that the members of the other constituents of the INDIA bloc had advised him to ignore the ED summon, and attend the coordination committee meeting in the national capital.

“But I chose to come to the ED office. I also requested the members of the INDIA not to postpone the meeting,” said, who reached the ED office at 11.32 a.m. on Wednesday.

He claimed that ED summoning him on the day of the INDIA bloc meeting shows the importance of Trinamool in the opposition alliance.

Banerjee also questioned the credibility of central agencies like the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the grounds of their low conviction rate.

“Such low conviction rate shows that most of the investigations carried out by the central agencies are politically motivated,” he said.

“It is extremely unfortunate that the ED and the CBI are pursuing cases on a pick and choose basis. We are not seeing any such action in the BJP ruled states. At the same time, any leader from the opposition parties being hounded by central agencies gets a clean chit as soon as they join the BJP,” Banerjee added.

Although he refused to divulge the details of the interrogation, he said it seemed that the questions posed to him were loaded with some preconceived notions.

Banerjee also thanked the leaders of the other constituents of the INDIA bloc for expressing solidarity towards him on the day of the first meeting of the coordination committee.

The Trinamool leader also accused the BJP of deliberately using the agency route to create a counter-narrative against the growing grievances among the people on the burning issues like inflation, unemployment and communal hatred.