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Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday said he will not be adhering to the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) asking him to be present at the agency's Salt Lake office on June 13 for questioning in connection with the multi-crore school recruitment case in West Bengal.
On Thursday evening, hours after ED delivered the summon, Banerjee said that if necessary, he would face the ED questioning only after the panchayat elections in the state are over on July 8. "This is a clear attempt to spoil my ongoing mass outreach programme. I am never scared of facing questioning. But at this point of time, I do not have time to waste facing the prolonged questioning for 10 to 11 hours. I am not anyone's slave," Banerjee told mediapersons. He also said that ED notice was served on the same day the dates for the panchayat polls were announced. "From this, the intention of spoiling my mass outreach programme is clear. If the central agency has the power, they can arrest me. The Union government and BJP are utilising the central agencies to terrorise the opposition parties. I am not blaming any officer of the ED and CBI. They are doing this under compulsion," Banerjee said. To recall, CBI sleuths already questioned Banerjee in connection with the school recruitment case for a marathon nine hours on May 20. However, Banerjee himself described the result of that marathon interrogation as "big zero." "It was a waste of time for me as well as for the interrogators. I cannot divulge the details of the questioning. But the entire exercise was futile," Banerjee told mediapersons after coming out of the CBI's Nizam Palace office that day. On Thursday, his wife Rujira Narula Banerjee was questioned for about four hours by ED officials in connection with the multi-crore coal smuggling case in West Bengal. --IANS src/pgh ( 330 Words) 2023-06-08-22:04:02 (IANS)
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