‘Why can’t you cooperate’: Calcutta high court to TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee

Justice Amrita Sinha observed that the Calcutta high court has merely ordered a probe and no one is above an investigation

The Calcutta high court on Monday directed Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to cooperate with investigators looking into large-scale irregularities in the recruitment of teachers in West Bengal.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee with her nephew and TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at a programme in Malda on May 4 (PTI/WB chief minister’s office)

“Why can’t you cooperate? What is troubling you? The court has merely ordered a probe and no one is above an investigation. Let me know what is troubling you. What is the difficulty?” justice Amrita Sinha said on Monday.

The matter was earlier being heard by justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay who directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to question the TMC leader in the case. Banerjee, however, approached the Supreme Court which took exception to justice Gangopadhyay giving an interview to a television channel in which he spoke against Banerjee and ordered that Abhishek Banerjee’s case be reassigned to another judge.

The Calcutta high court later assigned cases related to the recruitment scam to justice Amrita Sinha.

“Several names may crop in during an investigation. The person has to cooperate with the probe. Nobody is above the law and not even you. So, stop giving too much importance,” the bench said.

TMC member of parliament Santanu Sen declined to comment on the high court’s observations. “It is a court order and I don’t want to comment. But I don’t know how far it is right to include the name of a person in a case in which he is not involved. Can’t the courts see that names of BJP leaders have cropped up during investigation in some scams that are being probed by the CBI and ED?” said Sen.

The opposition has, however, hit out against the TMC after the high court’s order.

“When the case was shifted from the bench of justice Gangopadhyay to another bench by the Supreme Court, the TMC was very happy. The judge may change but the justice won’t. Monday’s order by Justice Sinha has burnt the face of TMC once again,” said Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury

“The people of West Bengal wanted this. They want the key persons behind this huge scam to come to light. Those persons whose names have cropped up should be questioned,” said Dilip Ghosh, BJP’s National vice president.