Abhishek Banerjee asked to appear before CID in fake signature case

The West Bengal CID has served a summons to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with an investigation into alleged forged signatures of party MLAs in a communication submitted to the Assembly Secretariat regarding the selection of the Leader of the Opposition

Kolkata: The West Bengal CID on Saturday served a notice to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, asking him to appear before it in connection with a probe into the alleged use of forged signatures of party legislators in a communication submitted to the Assembly Secretariat endorsing Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition.

The notice, described by CID sources as a summons directing him to appear for questioning at the agency’s Bhabani Bhavan headquarters at noon on Monday, was served personally to Banerjee at his Kalighat Road residence.

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The delivery, however, came only after a dramatic sequence of events that unfolded on the streets of Kolkata, drawing considerable public attention and extending for nearly an hour and a half.

It began after a team of five state CID officers landed at Banerjee’s residence, named Shantiniketan, at 188A, Harish Mukherjee Road in south Kolkata, at around 1.25 pm, but failed to gain access to the house due to the leader’s absence from the property.

The officers were heard telling an on-duty staff member at Banerjee’s residence that they were there to serve a notice to the owner and stayed at the spot for nearly 30 minutes.

The team was then directed to the leader’s alternative and adjacent residence on Kalighat Road, where the officers were made to wait outside for another 10 minutes following their refusal to hand over the summons to Banerjee’s office staff.

The officers delivered the notice to the TMC MP, who acknowledged its receipt, before the CID team finally left at around 2.50 pm.

“I am yet to see the content of the notice. I will consult my lawyers and make an appropriate response. I will surely cooperate with the probe in whatever manner possible,” Banerjee told reporters after the departure of the probe team.

Banerjee alleged that the move was motivated by political vendetta and was a fallout of his direct opposition to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

“I am not going to bow before their threats and will not quit the battlefield. I have faced the ED and CBI some 10-12 times before, both in Kolkata and Delhi. Now, following their assembly election victory, they are also armed with the Kolkata Police, CID and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to come after me. Let them arrest me… I am not running away,” the TMC leader said.

The case has its roots in a controversial letter submitted to the Assembly Secretariat on May 19 and signed by around 70 newly elected TMC MLAs offering support to Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the LoP, a cabinet minister-rank post.

The state Assembly Secretariat subsequently filed a complaint at Kolkata’s Hare Street Police Station, alleging that TMC leader Nayna Banerjee’s signature, which she signed after taking oath as an MLA, did not match the one in the letter of support for Chattopadhyay.

In its probe, the CID has so far questioned several TMC MLAs, including Nayna Banerjee, Bolpur MLA Chandranath Sinha, Beleghata MLA Kunal Ghosh and Canning-East MLA Baharul Islam.

On May 6, around 48 hours after the assembly election results were declared, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had convened a meeting of the party’s elected MLAs at her Kalighat residence, where Abhishek Banerjee interacted with the legislators to outline strategy and decide on the LoP selection.