Abhishek Banerjee To Skip INDIA Meet To Appear Before ED On Wednesday

The Trinamool leader stated on Sunday that the central investigative agency provided him with a summons to appear before it on September 13 for questioning.

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Kolkata: TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is likely to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on September 13, a well-placed source in the party confirmed on Monday. He may have to skip the first meeting of the coordination committee of the opposition bloc ‘INDIA’ of which he is a member as it is slated to be held in the national capital on the same day if he appears before the ED, the source told PTI on condition of anonymity.

“Abhishek Banerjee is likely to appear before the ED officials on September 13 at its city office here,” the source said when contacted. Banerjee, who is the virtual number two in the party, is a member of the coordination panel of INDIA. On Sunday, the TMC leader posted on ‘X’ that he has been served a notice by the central probe agency to appear before it on September 13 for questioning.

“The first meet of INDIA’s coordination committee is on September 13 in Delhi, in which I am a member. But, @dir_ed conveniently served me a notice just now to appear before them on the very same day! One can’t help but marvel at the timidity & vacuousness of the 56-inch chest model,” Banerjee posted on X in a veiled attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The summons to the TMC MP comes weeks after the central probe agency conducted raids in the office of ‘Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd’ in the city in connection with the school jobs scam. The ED claimed that Banerjee is the chief executive officer of the company.

He had earlier been summoned by the ED several times in connection with a cattle smuggling case and had told the agency in June that he would be available for any questioning after the July panchayat poll in Bengal.