Kolkata: Calcutta High Court single judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh on Friday extended protection to TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee against coercive action by central investigative agencies in the West Bengal school job case till August 17.
The next date of hearing has been scheduled on August 17 and the verdict is expected to be delivered on the next day.
On Friday, the counsel for Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju claimed in the court that Banerjee was summoned by ED for the purpose of securing information about the school job case.
The investigative agency wants to interrogate him, he added, and claimed that if anyone is not named as accused till date will also not be named as accused in future.
However, Justice Ghosh, not satisfied with the logic of the ED counsel, questioned the success rate of ED in West Bengal. He also observed that if any accused had to be granted bail because of the delay in investigation it is surely not a factor of satisfaction for the court. “This sends a bad signal about the agency concerned,” Justice Ghosh observed.
After Banerjee’s counsel approached the bench of Justice Ghosh with the plea for dismissal of the case in the matter, the ED’s counsel objected to the matter being heard at this particular bench.
Thereafter, Justice Ghosh recused from hearing the matter. However, later Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam referred the matter back to the court of Justice Ghosh.
–IANS