For the first time in the past one year of investigation into the teachers’ recruitment scam — that has seen many high and mighty, including ministers and MLAs, going to jail — Bengal’s most powerful address has come up for reference in the Calcutta High Court.
Justice Amrita Sinha while reprimanding the Enforcement Directorate for its alleged lackadaisical inquiry asked Mithilesh Mishra a senior official of the Agency whether Leaps and Bounds, a company being probed by the ED and owned by Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee functioned out of 30B Harish Chatterjee Road, the official residence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Delivering rather a painful rap on the knuckles of the ED for dragging its feet insofar as proceeding against some of the most powerful people running the company the Judge wondered whether something was preventing the officials from conducting a comprehensive investigation or the Agency was suppressing facts to be placed before the court.
“There appears to be inconsistency with regard to the address of the company. From the Memorandum of Association of the company, it appears that the same was registered with the address of 30 B, Harish Chatterjee Street, Kolkata 26. No further address is mentioned in the Memorandum of Association,” the judge told the investigating officer personally summoned to explain the contents of the report submitted by the agency.
On September 14, the Court had directed the ED to produce a list of assets of the company — of which Banerjee, the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed to be the Chief Executive Officer — after the ED had claimed that money received as kickbacks in the alleged illegal appointment of people in the state government-aided schools was might have been routed through the company.