A Vacation Bench of the Supreme Court agreed to hear on May 26 a plea filed by Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee against the long hours of questioning he is being subjected to by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam case.
Appearing before the Bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Karol, senior advocate A.M. Singhvi made an urgent mentioning for the case to be heard quickly. He said Mr. Banerjee, who is a nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had on May 20 undergone nine hours of interrogation in connection with the probe. He sought a direction from the court to protect him from any coercive steps on the part of the central agency.
The agency’s summons had arrived within a day of the Calcutta High Court dismissing a petition filed by Mr. Banerjee seeking recall of a previous court order, which said that investigative agencies such as the CBI and ED could interrogate him in the case. Mr. Banerjee has also challenged the ₹25 lakh fine imposed on him and Kuntal Ghosh, a Trinamool youth leader who was arrested in the case.
While the CBI is probing the criminal aspect of the scam, the ED is looking into the money trail involved in the alleged irregularities in school recruitment.
