The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday summoned Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee in the West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam. 

Sharing the summons on Twitter, Abhishek said that he will abide by it despite the agency not being given even a day’s prior notice. The notice, dated May 19, asks Abhishek to appear before it on May 20.

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“I have received a summon from the CBI to appear before them tomorrow, on 20th May’23 for examination. Despite not being given even a day’s prior notice, I will still abide by the summon. I will give my full cooperation during the course of the investigation,” he said.

“You are hereby directed to appear before me on 20.05.2023 (Saturday) at 11.00 AM at office of the DIG & Head of Branch, Central Bureau of Investigation, Anti Corruption Branch… Kolkata for the purpose of examination in compliance to order dated 13.04.2023 of Hon’ble High Court of Calcutta,” the notice issued by Sanjay Kumar Samala, Deputy Superintendent of Police, CBI, said.

The action comes a day after the Calcutta High Court allowed the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to question Banerjee in the multi-crore bribe-for-job scam in West Bengal schools. 

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The single bench of justice Amrita Sinha dismissed a petition by Abhishek Banerjee, seeking recall of an earlier order of the same court that allowed CBI and ED to question him.

The questioning pertains to the probe by the CBI and ED into the school recruitment scam in West Bengal underway since 2022. In March this year, the ED estimated the volume of the scam at Rs 350 crore. 

In May 2022, the Calcutta HC ordered the CBI to investigate the illegal appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal Central School Service Commission and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of Rs 5 – Rs 15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.

The ED, which is running a parallel probe into the cases related to money laundering, has so far arrested former Education minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee, TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya, former TMC youth leader Kuntal Ghosh, and TMC youth leader Santanu Banerjee.