School jobs scam: Abhishek Banerjee skips ED summons citing political engagements

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday wrote to the Enforcement Directorate expressing his inability to respond to its summons in the school jobs scam due to political engagements.
He had earlier said that his interrogation by the central agency would be a "waste of time".
Banerjee, who reached Bhangor in South 24 Parganas on Tuesday on the last leg of his Jana Sanyog Yatra, sent his lawyer to the ED's CGO Complex office in Kolkata to convey the message that he was ready to cooperate with the probe "within the permissible limits of law".
His letter - bearing the subject line 'Reply in the nature of clarification' - was addressed to ED assistant director Mithilesh Kumar Mishra. It was in response to the agency's June 8 summons to him, immediately after the agency had questioned his wife Rujira for nearly three-and-a-half-hours in the illegal coal mine case. Earlier, Rujira was stopped from flying to Dubai with her two children to meet her mother. Banerjee had told reporters the same day that he would not be able to attend the questioning on June 13 and would be available for questioning after the panchayat polls conclude on July 11.
In his letter to ED, Banerjee wrote: "At present I am not in Kolkata and travelling as part of a yatra to connect with the people of West Bengal. Further since the panchayat elections for the state of West Bengal have been declared to be held on July 8, I am engaged in preparing for the same." He further added that he was "unable to appreciate the scope and purport of the summon".
Banerjee stressed that the information and documents sought from him did not have "any connection to the public speech" delivered by him on March 29.
The CBI had last month questioned the Trinamool MP over the letter written by accused Kuntal Ghosh. Coming out of the CBI's Nizam Palace office after nine hours Banerjee had alleged that the entire exercise was a waste of time and had linked the summons to BJP feeling threatened about his mass outreach programme.
In his letter to the ED, Banerjee claimed that the information sought by the agency was voluminous and would take time to collate, Banerjee claimed that most of the information and documents sought were already available with the appropriate department. "The documents are voluminous in nature, and I am in the process of collating that," he said and demanded a clarification from the ED on why he had been summoned.