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ED appeals to Calcutta HC not to remove key officer from Bengal probes
The Calcutta high court on September 29 ordered the removal of ED’s assistant director Mithilesh Kumar Mishra from all probes in West Bengal
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday appealed to the Calcutta high court single bench of justice Amrita Sinha to reconsider her order to remove the agency’s assistant director Mithilesh Kumar Mishra from all probes in West Bengal, ED officials aware of the petition filed in the court said.
Justice Sinha passed the order on September 29 during a hearing on the status of the probe Mishra was leading into the bribe-for-job scam in the school education department.
Several high-profile people, including Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, his wife and his parents have been named before the court as suspected beneficiaries by ED.
The education department scam is also linked to a similar corruption that took place at several civic bodies between 2014 and 2018, the ED told the high court on April 21.
Calling Mishra incompetent, justice Sinha not only removed him from the education department scam investigation but all ED cases in Bengal. Following the order, ED assistant director Mukesh Kumar was given charge of the recruitment scam probe, officials said.
Abhishek Banerjee’s wife, Rujira, and his parents, Amit and Lata Banerjee, are all directors of a Kolkata-based company called Leaps and Bounds which is under scanner. ED raided the company’s office on August 21 and 22.
After the raid, ED issued a press statement saying “Abhishek Banerjee, MP from TMC, is the chief executive officer (CEO) of M/s Leaps and Bounds Private Limited and was also a director in the company from April 2012 to January 2014.”
The raid was conducted in connection with the bribe-for-job scam, the ED statement said.
Justice Sinha, who is monitoring the investigation, pulled up Mishra during a hearing on September 25 and asked why the probe status report filed by ED did not have details of the properties owned by Leaps and Bounds and its directors.
The judge made strong observations against Mishra before removing him from the case on September 29.
“On the last occasion (September 25), the court had an opportunity to interact with Mishra,” justice Sinha said, underlining that he was unable to provide “satisfactory” answers to the questions put forward by the court. “On such interaction the court is convinced that the officer would not be competent enough to handle the recruitment scam case which is of a huge magnitude.”
Mishra questioned Abhishek Banerjee on September 13 at the ED’s Salt Lake office on the eastern outskirts of Kolkata.
ED officials said that acting on orders of the high court they separately summoned Abhishek Banerjee’s wife and his parents between October 6 and 11 for questioning.
Amit Banerjee, one of the younger brothers of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and his wife skipped the summons citing health reasons. Rujira Banerjee was questioned for more than eight hours on Wednesday.
