School jobs scam: Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee moved Supreme Court against his questioning by the CBI in the school jobs scam case. The apex court on Monday agreed to hear the plea on May 26. Banerjee has sought the apex court's direction that no coercive steps be taken against him by the agency.
Earlier on May 20, the TMC leader was grilled for over nine hours by the CBI in an alleged connection with the school jobs scam.
Plea to be heard on May 26
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Banerjee, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a vacation bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Karol. The bench said the plea would be heard on Friday.
Banerjee's name cropped up in a complaint filed by Kuntal Ghosh, a local businessman and an accused in the school jobs scam, where he alleged that central investigating agencies were pressuring him to name Abhishek Banerjee in the case.
While mentioning the matter before the apex court, Singhvi said Banerjee has already been quizzed for over nine hours by the CBI and the TMC leader is apprehending that he may be arrested if called against for questioning by the agency. "I (Banerjee) am asking for no coercive step," Singhvi told the bench, while requesting it to list the matter for hearing in this week.
The bench agreed to hear the plea on Friday and told Singhvi to ask his junior counsel to go to the mentioning officer.
'Questioning was a waste of time'
After his questioning was over on May 20, Banerjee had told the mediapersons keeping vigil outside the CBI's office at Nizam Palace in Kolkata, that the questioning was a waste of time for both him and the investigative agency's officers, but he "cooperated in all that was asked". “I was questioned for 9 and-a-half hours by CBI …Questioning was a waste of time for them (CBI officers) as well as for me,” said Banerjee after emerging from Nizam Palace.
Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, claimed the real reason why he was called in was because he had refused to be a "pet dog of Delhi’s bosses" and that is why he has been "targeted". He also alleged that while TMC leaders who were unwilling to bend were being harassed, BJP leaders who had been involved in various cases were allowed to go scot-free.
The two-time TMC MP from Diamond Harbour was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) twice in the coal pilferage case in the agency's office in the national capital in 2021 and also in Kolkata in 2022.
While the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the criminal aspect of the scam, the ED is looking into the money trail involved in the alleged irregularities in school recruitment.
(With PTI inputs)
