ED summons TMC’s Abhishek in primary school recruitment case
The Enforcement Directorate served a summons to Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday, asking him to appear before it on June 15 in connection with the primary school recruitment irregularities case, officials said.
A team of ED officers visited Banerjee’s Kalighat Road residence in south Kolkata in the evening and delivered the summons to a member of his staff as he was not present, they said.
The Diamond Harbour MP, who is the nephew of former CM Mamata Banerjee, was directed to appear before the agency at its CGO Complex office in Salt Lake, they added.
The ED has been probing the primary teacher recruitment scam since 2022. The agency has conducted multiple raids at properties linked to TMC leaders in connection with the case and arrested several heavyweights, including former state education minister Partha Chatterjee.
Over the past year, the ED questioned several officials and attached assets worth crores of rupees, as the investigators suspect a wider conspiracy involving fraudulent appointments, tampered merit lists, and intermediaries who facilitated illegal teacher postings in state-run schools. Besides the ED, which is assessing the trail of the proceeds of crime, the CBI is investigating other aspects of the case. The two agencies have been filing charge sheets in phases as evidence is consolidated.
The ED is probing the role of Abhishek Banerjee-linked Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd in connection with the case after detecting suspicious transactions linked to accused middlemen, officials said. The company has been raided and its assets attached in connection with the money-laundering probe, while Banerjee has firmly denied any wrongdoing.
