Calcutta High Court today in a ruling allowed Mithilesh Kumar Mishra, assistant director of the Enforcement Directorate to continue as the investigating officer of the recruitment scam-related cases in Bengal, days after the same court ordered him relieved of his responsibilities in the matter.
On Friday, the single Bench of Justice Amrita Sinha of the court , who earlier in ruling had shown the ED officer the door for submitting an incomplete report over the assets of the Leaps and Bounds CEO and MP Abhsihek Banerjee, restored the responsibilities.
On Thursday, Mr Mishra and the ED had submitted a plea at Justice Sinha’s Bench for revision of her earlier order.
On Friday Justice Amrita Sinha, who herself ordered for Mishra’s relieving in the matter by the end of last month,
A close-door hearing at her bench took place on Friday afternoon that lasted for around a couple of hours where only the counsels of Mishra and ED were allowed to be physically present. A joint director of ED also joined the hearing virtually from the agency’s headquarter at New Delhi.
During the hearing, sources aware of the development, said the counsels and joint director pleaded for restoration of charges to Mr Mishra and also argued that the latter being an efficient officer will be able to steer the investigation in the right direction.
Finally, Justice Sinha restored Mr Mishra’s responsibilities being satisfied by the arguments made on his behalf.
Meanwhile, two new officers had joined the agency’s investigations in Bengal. One is Rajesh Kumar, who has been brought in from the Gangtok office, while another new officer Mukesh Kumar, had been appointed in place of Mithilesh Mishra as investigating officer in the recruitment scam to speed up the probe.
In another development, the central agency today summoned the personal assistant Sumit Roy of MP Abhishek Banerjee in connection with what the agency sources claimed is the primary recruitment scam.
Mr Roy, however, moved Calcutta High Court challenging the ED summons.
A source in the know claimed that the agency summoned him based on the leads it got while conducting raids at the Alipore office of Leaps and Bounds.
He was issued summons to verify the documents and to elicit information of what kind of role he plays in the company, sources said.
As things stand, the ED officers woul now await for the High Court verdict to make a further move with regard to Mr Roy