Despite Summons, CBI-ED Officials Skip Meeting Bengal Assembly Speaker; Send Letters Instead

Officials of the CBI and the ED on Wednesday skipped appearing before West Bengal assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee despite being summoned to explain why permission had not been taken from his office before chargesheeting state legislators in recent times. Banerjee said the two central agencies submitted letters, the content of which was not officially revealed. He, however, asserted that “no one is above the law”, to express his displeasure at the officials avoiding an appearance in front of him.

CBI sources said the central agencies informed the Speaker in the letters that everything had been done as per the law. “I had sought an explanation from the CBI and the ED as to why the Speaker’s office was not informed while framing chargesheets against MLAs and summoning them. I had asked the officials of the ED and the CBI to come to the assembly on September 22 and give me an explanation. But they didn’t come and submitted letters to my office. Several legislators of the ruling Trinamool Congress, including ministers, had been chargesheeted and summoned in recent times for their alleged involvement in ponzi scam cases and the Narada case.

“I want to say this clearly that no one is above the law, and this chapter is not closed yet,” Banerjee told reporters. The Speaker is likely to summon officials of the two agencies again in the near future, assembly sources said.

They said the CBI and the ED submitted letters to the secretariat. However, their content was not officially revealed by neither the central agencies nor the Speaker’s office. TMC leaders like Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Kunal Ghosh had said that investigating agencies always inform the the Lok Sabha Speaker in cases of action taken against MPs, but the practice is not followed concerning MLAs in West Bengal.

It is the norm to intimate the head of the House concerned before its members – MPs, MLAs or MLCs – are arrested, detained or convicted, the TMC leaders said.

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