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Synopsis

The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the Director of the Enforcement Directorate to remove Assistant Director of ED, Mithilesh Kumar Mishra from the Special Investigation Team constituted to investigate the school jobs for cash scams.

Justice Amrita Sinha said that the Assistant Director of ED should not be entrusted in any case arising in the State of West Bengal.

“The deputy director, ED is directed to immediately assign the work entrusted to Mithilesh Kumar Mishra to some other competent officer immediately. Shri Mithilesh Kumar Mishra shall be relieved from the investigation of the present case. The director of ED to engage Shri Mithlesh Kumar Mishra in some other case but the said officer will not be entrusted with any case arising in the state of West Bengal,” the court ordered.

Senior Advocate Bikashranjan Bhattacharya appearing for the petitioner told the court that the agency had issued a summons to Abhishek Banerjee to appear before the agency on October 3 in the school for jobs scam case but he had indicated that he would not appear.

“On Twitter, he has said he would not appear before the ED as there is some political function of his party. He has said he will not appear and no one can stop him. This is what has come on Twitter, I do not know the veracity of the same," Bhattacharya said.

Deputy Solicitor General Dhiraj Trivedi appearing for the agency told the court that the agency would file a comprehensive report on 10th October.

“We are on the objects and experimenting on the object. What was from our side was that we are not keeping any stone untouched and a very comprehensive report will be filed by the 10th. We are investigating in totality 131 cases. If have 6 investigating officers and above that 4 officers. One officer is responsible for 22 cases. The procedure we are following is in proper condition. We assure you that there is a lackadaisical attitude. Till today we identified 49.80 crore. We are assuring that we are coming to a logical conclusion. We are an agency known for its credibility,” Trivedi said.

However, the bench said that the interaction with Mithilesh Kumar Mishra on the last occasion and he was unable to provide a satisfactory answer to the court. Therefore, the bench ordered the removal of the officer from the case.

“On the last occasion, this court had an opportunity to interact with the said officer in open court. He was unable to provide satisfactory answers to the questions, put forward by this Court. On such an interaction, this court is convinced that he will not be competent enough to handle the instance scam case which is of huge magnitude,” the court said.

Case title: Soumen Nandy vs State of West Bengal