High Court defers verdict in Abhishek’s quashing plea in recruitment scam case

Kolkata: Following the recent raid by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the premises of Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd, the Calcutta High Court is learnt to have deferred its verdict relating to a petition filed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee asking for quashing of the criminal cases registered against him in the teacher recruitment corruption case

It is learnt that by an order on August 21, 2023, the arguments related to the case were already concluded and the court had reserved its judgement for September 5, 2023. However, Banerjee submitted a new application wherein he stated that in the the interregnum period, a raid was conducted at an office, namely, “Leaps & Bounds” wherein he happens to be the CEO and for a limited period of time, was also a director.

His counsel also apprehended that during the raid the 16 Excel files that were allegedly downloaded by an ED officer had something to do with the investigation being carried out.

However, the ED counsel is learnt to have refuted it, clarifying that these files had nothing to do with the search and seizure carried out at the company premises and that it was downloaded by one of their officers whose anxiety for his child after the search and seizure was over led him to check hostel accommodation in the computer of the said company. The ED counsel also said the hard disc of the computer was never seized and that the computer was allegedly used in the presence of the officer of Leaps and Bounds. Given the present circumstances, the court has kept in abeyance for the time being the date fixed for delivery of the judgment.

Recently, Leaps and Bounds had lodged a complaint with Kolkata Police alleging that those 16 files were downloaded in an unauthorised manner while Abhishek alleged during a political meeting that ED was trying to plant evidence against him. He said: “A day after I returned, ED officials were sent for a raid. During the raid, they uploaded 16 files to a computer. Now, if the CBI visits the same place after another 7 days and discovers those files, the smear campaign will begin.”