The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee to appear before it here on November 9 in connection with the alleged school jobs scam, a TMC leader said on Wednesday. Banerjee has been asked to appear at the ED’s Central Government Office (CGO) complex in Salt Lake on Thursday morning. Till the time the report was filed, there was no official reaction from either Banerjee or from any other Trinamool Congress leader. However, a section of party insiders said that in all probability he will be honouring the summon and be present at the central agency’s office.
This is the fifth time since May this year that Banerjee has been summoned for questioning by the ED as well as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is conducting a parallel probe in the case. The last time he faced marathon questioning by the ED was on September 13, the day he was supposed to be present at the meeting of the coordination committee of the INDIA opposition alliance. He was also questioned by the CBI in the school job case on May 20. Banerjee had described the outcome of the CBI interrogation as “big zero”. The ED had also summoned Banerjee’s parents Lata and Amit in connection to their association as directors with a corporate entity whose name surfaced in the ongoing probe. However, none of them appeared at the ED office in this connection. Both Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Narula Banerjee were also questioned by ED in connection with the coal smuggling case in West Bengal.