Evidence seized from Abhishek Banerjee's firm Leaps and Bounds Private Limited: Enforcement Directorate

 Company had alleged links with Sujay Krishna Bhadra alias Kalighater Kaku, who was arrested in connection with recruitment scam 

Abhishek Banerjee: File picture

Kinsuk Basu, TT, Calcutta, 24.08.23 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday issued an official statement on its searches in three offices of a company in the past two days in connection with alleged irregularities in appointments at state-aided schools and named Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee as the CEO of the firm.

Beginning Monday, separate ED teams had raided three offices of Leaps and Bounds Private Limited in New Alipore, Joka and Thakurpukur in Calcutta. The company had alleged links with Sujay Krishna Bhadra alias Kalighater Kaku, who was arrested in connection with the recruitment "scam".

The searches ended early on Tuesday and the ED said in its official release that "various incriminating documents and digital evidence were recovered and seized".

"Abhishek Banerjee, MP from TMC is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of M/s Leaps and Bounds Private Limited and was also a director in the company from April 2012 to January 2014," the press release said.

Since last year, when the CBI and the ED began probing alleged irregularities in the appointments at state-aided schools, senior officers have shied away from holding any official briefings and occasionally issued releases like the one put out on Wednesday.

A section of former officers with stints in the central agencies said the ED's statement on Wednesday saying "various incriminating documents and digital evidence were recovered" was vague as there were no specifics.

"Even the statement about Abhishek Banerjee being the CEO of a company and who all were directors of that company for what period of time are details that are available with the RoC (Registrar of Companies) and even other websites.... My question is whether such an extensive search operation was needed to unearth this?" asked a senior officer.

It's not that the ED's all press releases are like this.

The last few press releases issued by the ED since August 19 — which are posted on the official site of the agency — underline the agency's different activities in various states, including Odisha, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, apart from Bengal. The releases talk about search operations, apart from arrest and filing complaints under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

About the search operations that were conducted, the releases go into great detail.

"During the search operation, various incriminating documents, 39.33 KG of gold and diamond jewellery valued at Rs 24.7 Crore and cash amount of Rs 1.11 Crore were found and seized," says one of the releases about a search on "13 premises in Jalgaon, Nashik and Thane in money laundering investigation" on August 19.

About the search of bank lockers belonging to Cherukuri Sridhar and his family in Telangana on the same day, the agency's press release talks about the "recovery and seizure of 9.34 Kgs of jewellery valued at Rs. 6.98 Crore and 2.27 Kgs of gold coins & bars valued at Rs. 1.37 Crore...".

"When Partha Chatterjee and his associate Arpita Mukherjee were under the scanner and Arpita's homes were raided, the agency sleuths released pictures.... Those images said everything. But in this case, no such disclosures are made. It's only mentioned that incriminating documents and digital evidence were recovered. This leaves scope for speculation," said a former IPS officer.