ED writes to Abhishek clarifying reason for summon

Kolkata: Following TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee’s letter to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) explaining his reasons for skipping summon, the ED has written back explaining that he was summoned for questioning on the overall teachers’ recruitment case in Bengal and not just on the allegations of the expelled TMC youth Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh.

The ED’s reply came in the wake of Abhishek’s letter on June 13. In his letter, addressed to Mithilesh Kumar Mishra, Assistant Director, Directorate of Enforcement, he had written that he is “unable to appreciate the scope and purport of the summon under reference inasmuch as you have sought information/documents which do not have any connection with the public speech delivered by me on 29.03.2023 and therefore, are beyond the scope of the directions passed by the Hon’ble Court in the aforesaid matter.”

He added: “I would like to seek clarification from your office pertaining to the scope and purport of your ensuing investigation pursuant to which the summon under reference has been issued upon me...”

Sources said that ED has replied explaining that Abhishek was summoned for questioning on the overall teachers’ recruitment case in Bengal and not just on the allegations made by expelled youth Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh who had accused the central agencies of pressurizing him to name Abhishek in the case.

Abhishek had said that he would not be able to appear since he was preoccupied with party-related duties for the upcoming Panchayat polls but had assured that he is collating information/documents sought by the ED from him.