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WB school recruitment scam: CBI summons TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee for questioning
The summon came a day after the Calcutta high court allowed the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to question Banerjee in connection with the multi-crore bribe-for-job scam in West Bengal schools
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has asked Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee to appear before it for questioning in the multi-crore school recruitment scam in West Bengal. He has been called to the agency’s office in Kolkata on Saturday.
The party’s general secretary, who was in Bankura on Friday addressing rallies as a part of the party’s mass outreach program, said that he would appear before CBI.
“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,” the TMC MP wrote on Twitter.
The summon came a day after the Calcutta high court allowed the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to question Banerjee in connection with the multi-crore bribe-for-job scam in West Bengal schools.
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Banerjee, his wife and his sister-in-law have already been questioned by federal agencies in the coal smuggling scam.
Commenting on the CBI summons, Bharatiya Janata Party legislator and leader of the opposition in the West Bengal legislative assembly Suvendu Adhikari said, “He (Banerjee) had earlier said that he would embrace the gallows if it is proved that he had any involvement in any scam. I would say he need not embrace gallows but simply cooperate with the investigating agencies.”
The case relates to the bribes in the range of ₹5– ₹15 lakh allegedly collected by the ruling TMC leaders for teachers who failed the selection tests.
ED had in March claimed that the volume of the school recruitment scam in the state, in which multiple TMC leaders have been arrested, may run up to ₹350 crores.
The two agencies are probing the multi-crore school recruitment scam in West Bengal since 2022. The central agencies have so far arrested former education minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee, TMC legislator and former president of the state primary education board, Manik Bhattacharya, former TMC youth leader Kuntal Ghosh, and TMC youth leader Santanu Banerjee in connection with the case.
