Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 19: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday issued summons to Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with alleged West Bengal school job scam. The CBI has asked the Diamond Harbour MP to appear before the agency’s office in Kolkata at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
Responding to the summons the Trinamool leader, who had to stop his party’s “public outreach programme” in a huff, said he would give full cooperation in the investigation. “I have received a summon from the CBI to appear before them tomorrow, on 20th May’23 for examination. Despite not being given even a day’s prior notice, I will still abide by the summon. I will give my full cooperation during the course of the investigation,” Banerjee said on Twitter.
The Trinamool’s second-in-command after the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, said he would resume the outreach yatra on May 22. “As for my #JonoSanjogYatra, it will resume again on 22nd May’23 from the same location in Bankura where I stopped today. Unfazed by these events, I shall strive to serve the people of West Bengal with even greater dedication, zeal and commitment. Bring it on,” Banerjee said. The summons came a day after Calcutta High Court dismissed his petition seeking recall of a previous order of the same court which said investigative agencies such as CBI and ED could interrogate him and his co-accused Kuntal Ghosh in the teacher recruitment scam. Justice Amrita Sinha imposed a penalty of ₹25 lakh each on Banerjee and Ghosh on Thursday.
On Friday, lawyers representing the Trinamool general secretary approached a division bench of the High Court seeking urgent hearing of the petition, but the Court refused to entertain the matter with urgency.
While summons to Banerjee have been issued in the past by the CBI as well as the Enforcement Directorate in the coal pilferage scam, the name of the Trinamool Congress leader in the recruitment scam came up, started last month, when Kuntal Ghosh said he was threatened by agencies to name Banerjee. Kuntal Ghosh had also written a letter to the Court and Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, in his order on April 13, said accused Kuntal Ghosh could be questioned by the central agencies along with Abhishek Banerjee.
The order was challenged in the Supreme Court by lawyers representing Banerjee. The Supreme Court on April 28 had urged the then acting chief justice of the Calcutta High Court T.S. Sivagnanam to reassign two cases Soumen Nandy versus the State of West Bengal and Ramesh Malik versus State of West Bengal to a separate bench. The matter was listed before Justice Amrita Sinha who refused to grant any relief to Banerjee.
On January 21, the ED had arrested Kuntal Ghosh, a TMC youth leader from Hooghly district, in connection with the scam. Last year, the probe agency had arrested former State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and filed a prosecution complaint against him and seven other persons before the Prevention of Money Laundering court in Kolkata.
The CBI is also conducting its own probe into the scam and has arrested over half-a-dozen government officials and agents who have been accused of taking money from candidates to provide jobs.
A distant relative of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the kin of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs, a party councillor and the daughter of a BJP leader were among 842 candidates who were terminated from their jobs in State-run schools last month whose recruitment were allegedly found to be illegal.
The step was taken after the Calcutta High Court directed the West Bengal School Service Commission to cancel the appointments of all Group C staff who had secured jobs by unfair means, including manipulation of OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets. So far, the High Court has ordered the termination of appointments of 3,623 candidates who secured employment in State-run schools allegedly through illegal means.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday lashed out at the BJP, claiming the saffron party was gunning for her partymen and members of her family, using the investigative agencies.
The accusation made at a party rally in Bankura virtually from Kolkata, came after the CBI summoned Banerjee, her nephew and TMC general secretary. “BJP is after everyone in our party and my family, but we are not afraid of them,” the TMC Supremo said, implying the saffron party was behind the summons issued by the central investigative agency to Abhishek, adding “BJP is afraid of the success of our campaign.” “Till BJP is ousted from the Centre, our fight against its tyranny will continue,” Mamata Banerjee thundered.
Ms Banerjee had to step in at the last moment to address the rally virtually from Kolkata, as Abhishek Banerjee, who is presently in the district, had to leave for Kolkata to be able to appear before CBI at 11 am on Saturday.
The TMC had lately been complaining of receiving rough treatment from the Calcutta High Court. The developments centering Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay who has been taken off cases relating to West Bengal school job scam has brought the focus on the repeated directions by the Calcutta High Court ordering investigation by Central agencies in scams, irregularities and incidents of violence in the State. Justice Gangopadhyay had directed investigation by Central agencies on more than a dozen occasions in irregularities relating to the West Bengal school job scam, the last being in the alleged municipal recruitment scam.
Not only Justice Gangopadhyay but several other Benches of the Calcutta High Court had directed investigation by Central agencies into irregularities and violence in West Bengal over the past two years.
Reacting to the developments at the Calcutta High Court, Abhishek Banerjee said, “In 22 months (since Trinamool came to power in 2021) there have been directions of probe by Central agencies 23 times.” After coming to power for the third consecutive time in 2021, the Trinamool Congress Government has been grappling with repeated orders of Calcutta High Court where it had directed investigation by Central agencies.
The Calcutta High Court directed CBI investigation in the post poll violence where several supporters of BJP were killed and hundreds were turned homeless. As the CBI was registering FIR in cases of post poll violence the violence at Bogtui village in March 2022 once again raised questions on the law-and-order situation. Ten persons were burnt alive because of a factional feud between local Trinamool Congress leaders and the Court did not hesitate to assign the matter to CBI.
What followed March 2022 was CBI investigation in host of cases of violence including cases of sexual assault and death of minor at Hanskhali. Along with instances of violence, on several instances CBI probe was directed in West Bengal school job scam.
Political observers say that Abhishek Banerjee is right when he says that 23 investigations by the Central agencies have been ordered but they point out to a large extent the functioning of State administration under Trinamool Congress regime may be the reason behind the Court not trusting the State investigation agencies.
“In most of the cases where the Calcutta High Court has ordered a probe by Central agencies, there has been a failure of the State administration. It is not one Bench of the Calcutta High Court but several judges on several issues from scams to law and order have ordered investigation by Central agencies,” some analysts have said.
In certain cases, like a CBI probe in municipal recruitment scam and attack on convoy of Union Minister of State Nitish Pramanik, the Supreme Court had stayed these orders.
Another issue that has come to the fore in the legal tussle is the courts granting relief to Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of Calcutta High Court had granted relief to Adhikari in the FIRs lodged against him by West Bengal police. The development around giving relief to Adhikari turned ugly when posters were put up against Justice Mantha in the premises of the High Court and near his residence. A three Bench Judge of the Calcutta High Court is hearing the contempt petition.
“The Trinamool Congress has approached the Supreme Court five times challenging the High Court order. The government is spending crores of rupees higher only to target me,” Adhikari has said on the issue. The developments in the Court have not only resulted in war of words between the Trinamool and the BJP. A section of West Bengal Congress leadership has been upset over its top leaders representing Trinamool Congress and West Bengal Government in the Supreme Court. Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram had in May 2022 faced protests at Calcutta High Court when he appeared for West Bengal Government in a case. State Congress leader Kostav Bagchi on April 30 said he has written a letter to Abhishek Manu Singhvi pointing out that he representing the Trinamool and West Bengal Government in apex court has brought “shame” to Congress workers in WB.
