New Delhi, May 22
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on May 26 a plea by senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee against his questioning by the CBI in the school jobs scam case.
Banerjee, who was on May 20 questioned for over nine hours by the CBI in connection with the probe into the case, has sought the apex court direction that no coercive steps be taken against him by the agency.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Banerjee, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a vacation bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Karol.
The bench said the plea would be heard on Friday.
Banerjee’s name cropped up in a complaint filed by Kuntal Ghosh, a local businessman and an accused in the school jobs scam, where he alleged that the central investigating agencies were pressing him to name Banerjee, who is the national general secretary of the TMC, in the case.
The agency’s summons came within 24 hours of the Calcutta High Court dismissing on Thursday a petition filed by Banerjee seeking recall of a previous court order, which said that investigative agencies such as the CBI and ED could interrogate him in the teacher recruitment scam case.
An attempt on Friday to get a division bench and, after that, the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court to hear his revision plea did not yield results.
While mentioning the matter before the apex court, Singhvi said Banerjee had already been quizzed for over nine hours by the CBI and the TMC leader is apprehending that he may be arrested if called again for questioning by the agency.
“I (Banerjee) am asking for no coercive step,” Singhvi told the bench, while requesting it to list the matter for hearing this week.
The bench agreed to hear the plea on Friday and told Singhvi to ask his junior counsel to go to the mentioning officer.
