Abhishek: Will answer every ED summon, have nothing to hide
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress’s national general secretary and MP, Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and is learnt to have submitted 6000 pages of documents and claimed that he will appear every time he is summoned since he has nothing to hide.
Of all other times that he was summoned, Thursday was an exception in the sense that he left the ED office in an hour unlike on previous occasions when he was seen leaving after nine hours. Banerjee appeared before ED officers around 11.10 am and left just after 12pm.
After coming out of the ED office, Abhishek said that the Central probe agency had asked for certain documents from him. He informed the media that he has submitted about 6000 pages of such documents. He said had he wanted he could have skipped the summon and could have sent his reply through his lawyer but chose to appear before the central probe agency.
Abhishek also told the media that he has nothing to hide and which is apparent from his appearance each time he was summoned. He said in the near future too he will appear every time he is summoned since he has nothing to hide, a claim which Banerjee has maintained throughout.
“I have always cooperated with the probe. I have nothing to hide. I will appear before the ED if I am summoned again. I have submitted my detailed reply with all necessary documents,” he said.
The MP was summoned in connection with the alleged school jobs scam in West Bengal. Last month he was asked to submit certain documents which included details about his movable and immovable assets, including ones relating to his foreign visits, sources said. The two-time TMC MP was questioned by the ED twice in the coal pilferage case, once in the agency’s office in Delhi in 2021 and again in Kolkata in 2022.
Trinamool Congress has maintained that such summons are becoming frequent with the Lok Sabha polls approaching.
Senior party leader Shashi Panja alleged that the central probe agencies are being used by the Centre to harass Opposition party members as part of a “vendetta politics”.
