Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee faced Enforcement Directorate interrogation for around 11 hours on Monday in connection with an alleged money trail behind irregularities in recruitment to state-aided schools.
Abhishek arrived at the ED’s office in the CGO Complex, Salt Lake, minutes before 11am, the deadline mentioned in the summons. He left the office at about 10pm. “I tried to answer all the questions that were asked,” he said while leaving for his Kalighat residence.
This was the third time he faced ED questioning in the case — first in September and again in November 2023.
On Sunday, Abhishek had also faced CID officers in connection with an alleged signature forgery case.
ED sources said Monday’s interrogation was aimed at understanding the movement of alleged “proceeds of crime” arising from recruitment irregularities in state-aided schools. “The probe is solely centred around the alleged trail of proceeds of crime. There are reasons to believe the money flowed through multiple pathways. We wanted to question him on this,” a senior ED official said. His statements during the interrogation were recorded, the official added.
Abhishek reached the CGO Complex and went straight to the sixth floor, where ED officials received him. Questioning began shortly after, sources said.
In November 2023, he had submitted a 6,000-page document to the ED responding to questions posed by the agency in connection with the probe. “I have nothing to hide. I will appear before the ED if summoned again,” he had said then.
On Monday, he did not speak to the media outside the CGO Complex before facing questioning. Unlike previous occasions, there was no special security ring around him on the premises. His car was allowed to enter through the main gate, and journalists were not barred from approaching him.
The state government had appointed about 24,600 teaching and non-teaching staff in state-aided schools based on a written test in 2016 and personality tests. The merit lists for Group C and Group D posts expired in May 2019, while those for secondary and higher secondary teachers expired in December 2019.
The CBI probe showed that over 1,000 appointments were allegedly made after the expiry of the merit lists.
In July 2022, the ED launched a probe into the alleged money trail in the recruitment scam under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, following an FIR lodged by the CBI, which is also probing the case. In September 2022, the ED filed its first chargesheet naming former education minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee.
The sixth chargesheet, filed in 2025, named Chandranath Sinha, Trinamool MLA from Bolpur, as an accused.
In the alleged signature forgery case, Sinha has told the CID that the signature on the resolution copy was his and that he had attended a Trinamool legislators’ meeting to choose the leader of the opposition in the state Assembly.