There was a partial yet timely relief for Trinamool Congress second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee with the Calcutta High Court on Friday restraining the Enforcement Directorate from taking any coercive action against him in the school teacher recruitment scam.
The Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh directed the ED not to take any strong measures against Banerjee as of now, meaning thereby that the investigating agency will not be able to arrest him for the time being.
The Court order notwithstanding, the petitioner failed to get the proverbial Damocles’ Sword off his head as Justice Ghosh did not quash the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), which is equivalent to an FIR (in general criminal cases), filed by the ED.
The ED can continue with the investigation and if required can summon Banerjee who besides being an MP from Diamond Harbour constituency is also the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Court order comes as a big respite for Banerjee before the next year’s elections, experts said.
On the implication of the order senior advocate and CPI(M) MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said though the Trinamool Congress would claim that this was a relief “in fact it is not because the Court did not quash the ECIR … meaning thereby that he is very much within the purview of the investigation … and the Court did not quash the ECIR because there is substance in it … there is prima facie evidence … the Court only said that no coercive step can be taken because there was no fresh finding submitted by the ED.”
Already facing multiple investigations --- in cattle to coal smuggling cases --- Banerjee earlier had exuded confidence that no central agency, not even the ED or the CBI will be able to do anything to him as he was not involved in any scam.
“Knowingly or unknowingly I have never been involved in any scam … and the ED or CBI will not be able to do anything to me … if they find a proof against me even worth five paisa then they will not have to come to me … on my own I will go to the gallows,” Banerjee had said early this month emerging from a 10-hour marathon grilling by the ED officials in Kolkata.
“These are all results of political vendetta … the BJP is pulling the strings from behind … they are trying to victimize me because they were badly defeated in the 2021 Assembly elections,” Banerjee said adding “I am not afraid of ED or CBI … let them call me a hundred times and I will face them because I know that I have not done wrong.”
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh who is presently in Dubai on a business trip with the Chief Minister said that “the Centre is using the agencies to browbeat the TMC and its leadership … but Abhishek Banerjee will not be cowed down by their actions.”