TMC shows colour as CBI sends summons to Mamata’s nephew

Trinamool Congress put up a brave front on Friday as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) asked Abhishek Banerjee, the party’s No. 2, to appear before it on Saturday in connection with the school job recruitment scam that has shaken the state.

“I have received a summons from the CBI to appear before them tomorrow, May 20, for examination. Despite not being given even a day’s prior notice, I will still abide by the summons. I will give my full cooperation during the course of the investigation,” Abhishek tweeted. Abhishek, the party’s national General Secretary, has decided to return to Kolkata, suspending his ongoing mass outreach campaign, called ‘Trinamool-e-Naba Jowar’ (Trinamool New Wave) for a day or two.

Meanwhile, party supremo Mamata Banerjee promised that if Abhishek was detained, she would join the campaign and lead it to completion. “If Abhishek is detained, Mamata will take his place,” she promised. “If Abhishek is detained, I shall turn the jowar (tide) into a plaban (tsunami),” she added.

The CBI summons reached Abhishek Banerjee barely hours after the Calcutta High Court dismissed his petition seeking recall of a previous order of the court which said that investigative agencies such as CBI and ED could interrogate him in the teacher recruitment scam.

The single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha, who was allotted the case after it was taken away from the bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, said in a scathing 23-page order that Abhishek Banerjee’s repeated legal steps “raises doubt in the mind of the Court that the same have been filed with mala fide intention to deter the investigating officers to follow through the process of investigation which has already opened up a box of worms with more to follow suit. The idea is to delay the entire process to the extent possible so that the real culprits can remain shielded. In fact, on account of filing the applications neither the ED nor the CBI appear to have proceeded any further.”

“The notice under 160 CrPC issued in favour of AB (Abhishek Banerjee) is yet to be acted upon even though there is no order restraining the investigating authority to proceed with the same. The applicants have indeed been successful in interrupting the investigation to a great extent,” the order read.