Over nine hours passed before Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee walked out of the CBI office at Nizam Palace on Saturday. He walked out a little before 9 pm.
He challenged the CBI to arrest him if they have any proof against him. Banerjee arrived at the CBI office at 10.55 am on Saturday, and the questioning process started around 11.15 am. Although CBI insiders remain tight-lipped about the proceedings, it is learnt that the initial questioning started with a five-page questioner but more questions surfaced in due course of time.
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Even as the CBI was turning the heat on the Trinanul Congress national general secretary, Enforcement Directorate launched a marathon raid in at least 10 places in and around the city and the district of South 24-Parganas in search of leads in connection with alleged laundering of money as proceeds of crime allegedly got through the illegal recruitments of teachers.
The initial questioner was prepared by the central agency based on the statements given by expelled Trinamul Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh, who’s an accused in the case related to the alleged scam in the recruitment of teachers in state-run schools. He was specifically asked, informing the source, on whether Ghosh’s content in the letter that he allegedly wrote to the Hastings Police and the special CBI court at Alipore, was merely a matter of coincidence or whether there was any plan or a conspiracy at the behest of anybody that had worked behind it.
To which, Banerjee was learnt to have expressed his ignorance. Banerjee’s name surfaced in the school recruitment case after Ghosh gave letters to a local police station and the judge of a special CBI court, accusing central agencies of putting pressure on him to name Banerjee in the case.
Meanwhile, the counsels of Abhishek Banerjee have filed a special leave petition at the Supreme Court, challenging the decision of the Calcutta High Court’s singlejudge Bench of Justice Amrita Sinha giving go-ahead to the central agencies to question Banerjee in connection with the alleged recruitment scam. On Saturday morning, Banerjee himself gave a letter to the CBI informing the latter about the special leave petition filed at the apex court. While passing the order on Thursday, Justice Sinha had also imposed a penalty of Rs 25 lakh each on Banerjee and Ghosh for wasting the time of the court.
On Friday, Banerjee’s counsel approached two division Benches of the high court challenging the single-judge bench order and also appealed for a fast-track hearing in the matter. However, the plea was turned down.
