‘Got message they may arrest Abhishek’, says Mamata Banerjee
Abhishek Banerjee claimed that ED officials had left 16 Excel files on a computer during a raid at his company on August 21 and 22
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that she has received a message from someone saying that “they” may arrest her nephew and Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
The TMC supremo’s comment came even as Abhishek claimed that ED officials had left 16 Excel files on a computer during a raid at his company on August 21 and 22 in connection with the bribe-for-job scam in the education department.
“The ED planted those files in the computer. How can they enter an office without informing anyone? Yesterday, someone sent me a message saying they may arrest Abhishek. If you think you are experts on computers, so are we,” Mamata Banerjee said, addressing a rally held in Kolkata to celebrate the foundation day of the TMC’s students’ wing.
The raids at offices and properties of the company, Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd, were conducted to collect more evidence against Sujaykrishna Bhadra, a prime suspect who is now in judicial custody. Bhadra told the media before his arrest on May 30 that he was an employee of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
The raids took place a day after Abhishek returned to Kolkata from the USA where he had gone for an eye treatment.
“A day after I returned, ED officials were sent to my office. They left 16 files in a computer. If the CBI visits the same place after seven days and discovers those files, another smear campaign will start. I reiterate that if there is an iota of evidence against me, no ED or CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) will be required. I will voluntarily walk to the gallows and hang myself. Does anyone else in this country has the courage to say this?” Abhishek said, addressing the same rally in Kolkata.
This was the first time the young TMC Lok Sabha member said in public that Leaps and Bounds is his company although he referred to it as his “office” without taking the name. On August 23, ED named him in a press release related to the raid. “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 press release said.
“While I was travelling for medical treatment, a rumour was spread claiming I had India left for good. My surname is not Modi, Choksi, or Mallya. It is Banerjee. We know how to keep fighting with our heads held high and without surrendering to Delhi,” Abhishek said at the rally, apparently referring to businessmen Nirav Modi, Mehul Chowksi and Vijay Mallya who figure among the loan defaulters who fled the country.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reacted to Abhishek Banerjee naming three communities in his speech.
Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said: “Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had set the trend by insulting an entire community. Abhishek is bringing this culture to Bengal. The federal agencies are investigating all the cases in Bengal under court orders. The BJP has nothing to do with it. We don’t spread rumour on who will be arrested next. TMC workers do it quite keenly.”
A Kolkata police official said on condition of anonymity that Chandan Banerjee, an employee of Leaps and Bounds, lodged a complaint at the cybercrime cell alleging that 16 excel files were downloaded and left on a desktop computer during the raid. The computer was examined but not seized.
The official said that responding to a letter from police, ED wrote to Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal on Saturday that one of the officers involved in the raid mistakenly downloaded the files while searching for hostels for his daughter, who is a student at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology at Shibpur in Howrah district.
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