ED can summon Abhishek Banerjee if not satisfied by property documents submitted by him: Calcutta High Court

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court’ on Thursday observed that Enforcement Directorate (ED) will have the right to summon Trinamool Congress national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee in case the investigating officials are not satisfied with the documents related to his assets and property submitted to the agency.

Although the division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Uday Kumarh has kept reserved the final order on the plea by Banerjee to get relief from central agency investigation in the multi-crore cash for school jobs case, it observed that in case of sending summons to Banerjee, the ED will have to do it 48 hours in advance.

The division bench, at the same time, observed that in case of fresh summons, the agency either has to send before October 19 or after October 26, that is excluding the period of the forthcoming Durga Puja festival.

On Thursday, the division bench also rejected the plea from Banerjee’s counsel for more time to submit the property and asset-documents. Justice Sen clearly observed that all the documents in the matter will have to be submitted to ED by October 10 and not even an extra hour will be granted on this count.

As per the division bench’s observation, the central agency sleuths should examine those documents by October 12 and then decide whether they will issue summons to Banerjee again or not.

On Thursday, Banerjee’s counsel argued that the court should give shield against coercive action after hearing all parties, because in the process, the social prestige of his client is hampered.

However, rejecting that argument, Justice Sen insisted that under any circumstances, all documents will have to be submitted to the investigative agency by the specified date.

On Wednesday, the same division bench refused to intervene in the earlier order by the single- judge bench on September 29 in the case.

A single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha had directed the ED to ensure that the probe in the school job case involving Abhishek Banerjee is not affected in any way.

The division bench had also refused to accept the petitioner’s argument of judicial influencing of the investigation process by Justice Sinha’s bench. "If she had felt that there was smoke somewhere, she had sought documents to evaluate whether the smoke was still there or it had evaporated. What can the court do if it notices any lapse in the investigation process. The court can always seek documents. What is the problem with submitting those documents to the court?" Justice Sen had questioned.