TMC’s Abhishek accuses CBI of 'harassing' by issuing summons despite SC stay

NEW DELHI: Senior TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee on Monday accused central agencies of trying to "harass" him by summoning him for questioning despite the Supreme Court staying an order by the Calcutta High Court that directed them to interrogate him. Abhishek, nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, tweeted images of the letter summoning him, dated April 16, 2023, by the CBI, where a handwritten line shows it was received at 1.45 pm on Monday.

Also read | PFI probe: NIA attaches 2 floors of Pune school building used to radicalise youths

PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of the letter. "In its desperation to 'harass' and 'target' me, BJP exposes CBI & ED to contempt of court! SC stayed the Calcutta HC's order in the morning that granted permission to the Central Agencies to summon me. Yet, the summons was hand-delivered today at 1:45 pm. Grave state of affairs!" TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said on Twitter. When contacted, CBI officials declined to comment on the issue.

In the morning, a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala stayed the direction of a single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court made on Thursday that TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee and Kuntal Ghosh, an accused in the school jobs-for-graft case, can be questioned by investigating agencies. The Supreme Court judgement was passed around 11.30 am. The Calcutta High Court on April 13 said that Abhishek and Ghosh can be questioned by the ED and the CBI, and such "interrogation should be made soon".

Reacting to the development, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the "summon proves" that the central agencies have a one-point agenda of targeting the TMC leader. "The central agencies are so busy targeting Abhishek Banerjee and TMC leaders that they have the audacity to disregard the Supreme Court order. We will inform the Supreme Court about this misadventure of the central agencies," he said. The West Bengal BJP unit, however, tried to downplay the development by saying as the letter was written on April 16, it is most likely that "there have been some issues with the delivery of the letter," "We can very well see from the tweet that the letter was written on April 16.

Due to some reason, it was delivered this afternoon. The TMC is trying to make an issue out of a non-issue and divert attention from the attention of its MLA today in the SSC case," BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said. Trinamool Congress MLA Jiban Krishna Saha was arrested on Monday by the CBI from his residence in West Bengal's Murshidabad district in connection with its investigation into the school jobs-for-bribes scam, officials said.