Abhishek Banerjee can appear for questioning on Wednesday: ED to Calcutta HC

KOLKATA: Enforcement Department (ED) has given an option to Trinamool Congress national general secretary and party Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee to appear at the agency’s Salt Lake office on Wednesday for interrogation in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal.

But instead of giving any intimation on this count directly to Banerjee, ED floated this proposal at the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Uday Kumar on Tuesday, where Banerjee’s counsel had filed a petition seeking clarification on the September 29 order of the single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha on the ED probe in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case.

In her order on September 29, Justice Amrita Sinha directed ED that their scheduled investigation process should not be hampered at any cost and for the sake of carrying forward the investigation, the central agency will have the liberty to take any step as per legal provisions.

Banerjee was supposed to be present at ED's Salt Lake office on the northern outskirts of Kolkata for questioning in relation to the school job case on Tuesday. Though Banerjee had made it clear through an X (formerly Twitter) message that he will not be present at the central agency office owing to his political preoccupation, he had not given any written intimation to ED.

Incidentally, while ED has given an option to Banerjee for appearance at its office on Wednesday, the hearing on the fresh petition by Banerjee will also come up on the same day.