Calcutta High Court Nixes Yet Another Attempt By Bengal Police To Intimidate CBI And ED Officials Probing Scams

The Calcutta High Court has nixed another attempt by the Bengal Police to intimidate officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing scams in Bengal. 

The Court asked the police to refrain from acting on a complaint filed by jailed Trinamool leader Kuntal Ghosh, who is one of the accused in the cash-for-jobs scam in the state school education department. 

Ghosh, was arrested on 20 January after ED officers found strong evidence of his involvement in the scam. Ghosh is accused of collecting crores of Rupees from aspirants for jobs (teaching and non-teaching) in government schools. 

A few days ago, while being taken to a PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) Court in Kolkata, Ghosh had told reporters that he was being pressured by the ED to name senior Trinamool leaders, including Abhishek Banerjee, in the scam. 

Ghosh, who has been expelled from the party, was known to be very close to Abhishek Banerjee. The two were seen together at many events. 

He later wrote a letter to Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay levelling the same allegation against the ED. Ghosh, who is now lodged at the Alipore Correctional Home, followed it up with a written complaint to the Hastings Police Station stating that ED officers were threatening and putting pressure on him to name senior Trinamool leaders. 

Trinamool general secretary and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee alluded to this at a rally in Kolkata two weeks ago.

He alleged that ED and CBI officers were playing foul and putting pressure on those arrested for their alleged involvement in scams to implicate the party leadership. 

Abhishek Banerjee alleged that CBI officers had asked Madan Mitra (the then transport minister) and Kunal Ghosh (the current chief spokesperson of the party) to name Mamata Banerjee and others in the Saradha scam.

Mitra and Ghosh had been arrested for their involvement in the scam and had spent many months in custody. 

The Sinister Gameplan:

The state police, it is learnt, was planning to register an FIR based on Kuntal Ghosh’s complaint and then summon the ED officers named by the incarcerated Kuntal Ghosh for interrogation. 

“Bengal Police officers would have used that opportunity to learn about the progress of the investigations into the cash-for-jobs scam and try to intimidate the ED officers into diluting the charges against Trinamool leaders, going slow on the investigations or even derailing them. The police may even have been planning to arrest ED officers on trumped-up charges in order to discourage other ED and CBI officers from probing scams and arresting Trinamool leaders in future,” an ED officer explained to Swarajya. 

This is also not the first time that the Bengal police has tried to use such tactics to derail ongoing investigations into scams in which its political masters — senior Trinamool leaders — are involved. 

The Bengal police had attempted to intimidate senior CBI and ED officers probing the cattle smuggling scam, which has ensnared senior Trinamool leader Anubrata Mondal. 

Acting on an apparently false complaint by a lady whose husband had died in CBI custody, Bengal police tried to summon ED and CBI officers investigating the cattle smuggling scam for interrogation (read more about this here). 

But that move was effectively thwarted. 

The Bengal Police, while charting such methods to intimidate and derail investigations into the mega scams in Bengal, have only taken a cue from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. 

The Chief Minister rushed to the official residence of the then Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar when CBI sleuths went there in early February, 2019, to issue summons to him to appear for questioning in the Saradha chit fund case. 

Kumar was rumoured to have destroyed a lot of evidence when he was heading the initial probe into the scam. CBI believes that all the destroyed evidence could have implicated the top leadership of the Trinamool. 

The CBI sleuths who had gone to the police commissioner’s residence were stopped and prevented from carrying out their duties and were taken to a police station for interrogation. They were kept confined at the police station and allegedly threatened by cops. 

Mamata Banerjee rushed to the police commissioner’s residence and addressed reporters before sitting on a dharna for three days. 

Since then, the Bengal police which has earned notoriety for acting as an adjunct of the Trinamool Congress, has tried every trick in the book to derail probes by the CBI and ED into the many mega scams that have brought shame to Bengal. 

High Court Brakes On Police Action:

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who had ordered the CBI probe into the school recruitment scam, restrained the police from acting on Kuntal Ghosh’s complaint till the next hearing. 

He also asked the police not to register an FIR on Ghosh’s complaint. 

The central agencies are now examining the feasibility of approaching the Courts for a blanket ban on any action against ED and CBI officers by the Bengal Police. 

Also read: This Is How Trinamool And Bengal Government Are Trying To Thwart Ongoing Probes Into Cattle-Smuggling Scam