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‘Not competent enough’: ED assistant director removed from recruitment scam probe
Earlier this week, the Mithilesh Kumar Mishra, Enforcement Directorate (ED) assistant director, was pulled up by the high court after the bench of justice Sinha expressed dissatisfaction with a report filed by Mishra in connection with the probe
The Calcutta high court on Friday removed Mithilesh Kumar Mishra, Enforcement Directorate (ED) assistant director from the probe into the multi-crore recruitment scam in state-run schools in West Bengal.
It was Mishra who had summoned Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to appear before the agency on October 3 for questioning in connection with the bribe-for-job scam.
“On the last occasion (September 25), the court had an opportunity to interact with Mishra,” the single bench of Justice Amrita 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.”
Earlier this week, the officer was pulled up after the bench of justice Sinha expressed dissatisfaction with a report filed by Mishra in connection with the probe. The court also questioned whether the agency’s officers were trained enough to handle such cases while directing the ED director to reassign the work.
“The ED director is being directed to immediately assign the work entrusted upon Mishra, to some other competent officer. Mishra shall be relieved from the present case (school recruitment scam). He may be engaged in some other case. The officer shall not be entrusted to any case arising in West Bengal,” the high court bench said.
The development has triggered a political slugfest between the ruling TMC and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
“Even though the ED has not been able to produce any evidence, a political narrative is being constantly created. Even a section of the judiciary is in it. The BJP is behind this. Nothing fruitful is coming out from the probe only taxpayers’ money is being wasted,” Jay Prakash Majumdar, TMC leader, told the media.
“The court is monitoring the probe and has given a direction as it may have felt dissatisfied. The people of West Bengal want a speedy and time-bound trial. We all want the guilty to be punished,” said Samik Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson.
Meanwhile, responding to the ED summons, Banerjee on Friday said that he will not attend the questioning in connection with the school jobs scam in Kolkata on October 3 as he will leading a protest rally in New Delhi against the Centre’s decision to withhold the state’s dues under MGNREGA.
Earlier this week, a single bench of justice Abhijit Gangopadhay of the Calcutta high court ordered the transfer of special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court judge Arpan Chattopadhyay by October 4 for intervening in a high court order in connection with the West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam.
The CBI is probing into the multi-crore recruitment scam ordered by the Calcutta high court. The federal agency has earlier been pulled up by the court for not being able to come up with expected results in a time-bound manner.
