Trinamul Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee has said he has “complete faith in the judicial system” and is “ready to face any investigating agency”.
The Diamond Harbour MP, however, added that he would explore the option of approaching a division bench of Calcutta High Court or the Supreme Court to challenge Justice Amrita Sinha’s refusal to recall Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s earlier order to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate him in the school recruitment “scam”.
While reacting to the order of Justice Sinha of Calcutta High Court, the Trinamul MP who was in Durgapur on Thursday said: “I am ready to face any investigating agency. I will not comment on the court verdict but if anybody thinks I am scared, they are living in a fool’s paradise.”
The national general secretary of Trinamul was in Durgapur as part of his party’s new mass outreach drive Nabo Jowar.
The court order on Thursday came as a blow to Abhishek as a fine of Rs 25 lakh was also slapped on him for wasting the court’s time.
“The roads to go to the division bench or the Supreme Court are open and I will take a call after going through the court order,” said Abhishek.
He said he had already faced the investigating agencies several times, including in Delhi. “If any agency again calls me during my Nabo Jowar mass outreach drive, I will press a pause button on it for a day and face the interrogation to cooperate with them,” Abhishek told reporters here.
He also asked why those whose convoy had mowed down a common man would not be penalised. Abhishek was apparently referring to a recent incident in which a man had allegedly been run over by a car in the convoy of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.
Abhishek also accused the Enforcement Directorate and CBI of forcing those in their custody to take his name during interrogation.
“At a public meeting on March 29, I alleged that the central agency was forcing people to take my name and on the same day, at a conclave of a news channel, Union home minister said the CBI had forced him to take the name of Narendra Modi. So, my allegation is substantiated by the former BJP national president,” he said.
Union home minister Amit Shah had said the CBI had put pressure on him to “frame” Narendra Modi in an alleged fake encounter case in Gujarat when he was being questioned by the probe agency during the Congress-led UPA government.
Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat when the alleged fake encounter had taken place.
