Trinamool Congress leader and the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee has denied being involved in the teacher recruitment scam that the Enforcement Directorate is currently investigating and has claimed it to be part of a political vendetta.
The Enforcement Directorate raided several premises of a company in Kolkata whose official Chief Executive Officer is Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee. The company's chief operating officer Sujay Krishna Bhadra was arrested by ED in May this year.
As part of the ongoing investigation into the West Bengal teacher's recruitment scam, the ED searched the premises of the company named Leaps and Bounds Pvt. Ltd. which the federal agency alleged was "used for making dubious transactions running into crores of rupees."
During the search operations, the ED reportedly said, "various incriminating documents and digital evidence were recovered and seized."
According to reports, the ED has said that they took action against the arrested accused in this case Sujaya Krishna Bhadra who has formerly been a director of the company and also the COO.
Bhadra was a director for the company during the period of April 2012 to March 2016 and the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee has also been a director of the company during April 2012 and January 2014.
Abhishek Banerjee, 35, has always denied wrongdoing and had called the ED action borne out of political vendetta.
ED also arrested former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, his alleged aide Arpita Mukherjee, TMC MLA and the ex-president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education Manik Bhattacharya, TMC youth wing leaders Kuntal Ghosh and Santanu Banerjee, Ayan Sil in this case where it has filed a total of five charge sheets under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Partha Chatterjee was also suspended by the TMC after his arrest by the ED.
Assets worth more than Rs 126 crore have been attached in this case till now.