Abhishek Banerjee, a senior leader in the TMC, wrote a letter on Tuesday to the Enforcement Directorate, which had summoned him for questioning regarding its ongoing investigation into a scam involving primary school jobs.
In the letter, he explained that he was too busy working on a party program at the time to appear before the agency.
The central agency sent Banerjee a notice last week requesting his appearance before its officers on June 13.
In the letter to the ED, Banerjee, who is regarded as the party's second-in-command, stated that in addition to preparing for the panchayat elections on July 8, he is traveling as part of the "Trinamool e Nabojowar" (New Wave in Trinamool) campaign.
He stated that the appropriate government authorities have access to the majority of the documents requested by the ED.
In the letter to the ED, he stated, "I am unable to appreciate the scope and purport of the summons under reference in as much as you have sought information/documents that do not have any connection with the public speech delivered by me on March 29."
The TMC national general secretary had refused the ED's summons last week because he was too busy working on political programs.
“The information/documents requisitioned by your office in the summons under reference date to a decade, which are voluminous in nature, and I am in the process of collating such information/documents,” he said.
However, Banerjee asked the ED for clarification regarding "the scope and purport of the ensuing investigation following which summons has been issued" to him.
“I am ready and willing to extend my cooperation with your ensuing investigation within the permissible limits of the law,” he said.
On May 20, CBI officers interrogated the TMC MP at their Kolkata office for more than nine hours as part of their investigation into the primary school jobs scam.
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