Teachers' recruitment case: ED replies to Abhishek Banerjee's letter seeking clarification on 'purport' of probe

Kolkata, June 19 (IANS) Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday informed that they had sent a reply to Trinamool Congress' national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee's June-13 letter, seeking clarification pertaining to the 'scope and purport' of investigation for which he was summoned for questioning on that day.

ED sources said that in the reply, the central agency has clarified that he had been summoned for questioning on the overall teachers' recruitment case in West Bengal and not just on the allegations made by expelled youth Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh accusing the central agencies of putting pressure on him to name Abhishek Banerjee in the case.

ED had earlier summoned Banerjee to appear at the agency's Salt Lake office for questioning in connection with the scam on June 13. But on that day, Banerjee sent a letter to the ED expressing his inability to report for interrogration because of some prior engagements.

In that letter, he also sought the clarification on the 'scope and purport' of investigation.

"It is not out of place to mention that most of the information/documents sought for are already available with appropriate government authorities/departments. Be that as it may, the information/documents requisitioned by your office in the summon under reference date to a decade, which are voluminous in nature and I am in the process of collating such information/documents. Having said so, 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," Banerjee's letter to ED's assistant director Mithilesh Kumar Mishra read.