Trinamool Congress’ national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee finally submitted the documents relating to his assets and properties to Enforcement Directorate (ED) late on Tuesday evening, just few hours before the midnight deadline set by the Calcutta High Court.
Earlier on Tuesday, the ED counsel had informed the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha that Banerjee has not submitted hard copies of his assets and properties to the ED till late afternoon.
However, the ED counsel, while referring the matter to Justice Sinha’s bench, added a rider to this statement, saying that while the hard copies of such assets and property-related documents have not been submitted to the central agency till 4.43 p.m., he is not aware if any soft copy has been submitted.
Justice Sinha then directed the ED to take necessary action as per legal provisions if the documents are not submitted to the agency within the specified time period.
However, at around 10.15 p.m., information came from agency insiders that at the last moment, the documents concerned have been submitted at the ED’s office in the form of hard copies.
As per last week’s order of the Calcutta High Court, Banerjee had to submit all documents related to his assets and properties to the ED by the midnight of October 10, and the central agency, after examining the documents, will have to decide by October 12 whether it will issue a summon to Banerjee in connection with the multi-crore cash for school jobs case in West Bengal.
The court had also directed the ED to get the documents examined by experts specialising in handling matters related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
