Calcutta HC to hear Abhishek Banerjee’s plea challenging CID summons today

The Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee has challenged CID summons in the Calcutta High Court over a signature mismatch case involving legislators. The hearing follows raids on party offices in Kolkata amid an ongoing investigation into alleged procedural irregularities

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday will hear the petition by Trinamool Congress’s General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee challenging the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) summons to him in the legislators’ signature mismatch case.

Last week, Banerjee, also the nephew of the party chief and former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, approached the single-judge vacation bench of Justice Chaitali Chatterjee Das, challenging the CID summons and seeking protection from coercive police action, including arrest, in the matter.

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He also pleaded for a fast-track hearing in the matter. However, the vacation bench rejected the plea and fixed June 10 as the date of the first hearing in the matter. The hearing on Wednesday came amid the simultaneous raids and search operations on Tuesday at a Trinamool party office adjacent to the residence of Mamata Banerjee at Kalighat in south Kolkata and at another office at Camac Street in central Kolkata, where Abhishek Banerjee used to work from.

Abhishek Banerjee had been served with three notices for integration by the CID sleuths in its probe into the case of mismatches in the signatures of some Trinamool legislators in a crucial resolution on appointments to certain crucial Assembly posts reserved for the opposition. However, Abhishek Banerjee dodged all the summonses, including one where he was asked to appear for interrogation at CID’s headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

The simultaneous raids and search operations at the two locations on Tuesday were in search of the main copy of that resolution. However, the CID are yet to confirm anything on the outcome of their search operations.

Both Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee went to Delhi to attend the crucial meeting of the opposition Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) Bloc on June 8. On June 9, Mamata Banerjee also had a one-on-one meeting with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.