Abhishek Banerjee's Plea for ECIR Dismissal Rejected, Interim Protection from Coercive Action Granted in Cash-for-school Job Case

Friday brought both -- unease and respite -- for Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at the Calcutta High Court.

A single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh rejected Banerjee’s plea for dismissal of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) filed against him by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal.

However, the bench granted him an interim protection against any coercive action by the ED just on the basis of the ECIR. The Justice observed that since the preliminary findings in ECIR are just based on some statements of another accused in the case Sujay Krisha Bhadra, so on the basis of that ECIR no coercive action can be taken against him for the time being.

Now, although the central agency will have no restriction on summoning or interrogating him in the matter, they will not be able to adopt any coercive action, including his arrest on the basis of the ECIR.

While rejecting the plea for dismissal of the ECIR, Justice Ghosh observed that since the investigation in the matter is on, the plea for dismissal is at a premature stage and hence the court will not give any direction at this stage.

The order comes a day after Banerjee told newspersons in New Delhi that he submitted his property and bank account details to ED way back in 2020 when he went to the central agency office for the first time.

"I had been summoned by the central agencies five times, out of which four times were by ED and once by CBI. My wife has been summoned four times. I do not give importance to ED a CBI anymore," he said.