Trinamool billboard row: After Abhishek Banerjee, Kolkata Police issue notice to Derek O’Brien

Kolkata Police summoned TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien over FIRs related to resistance against the removal of an illegal billboard from Abhishek Banerjee’s party office. Banerjee was also summoned, while police have arrested 14 people following clashes with KMC officials 

Kolkata: Kolkata Police issued a summons to Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien on Sunday in connection with FIRs filed over the removal of an illegal billboard from the roof of Abhishek Banerjee’s party office on Camac Street in Central Kolkata.

In the notice, the party’s Rajya Sabha member has been asked to appear at Shakespeare Sarani Police Station by noon on August 31. Incidentally, on Saturday night, cops from the same police station arrived at the residence of Trinamool Congress general secretary and the party’s Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee and issued a summons to him in the same matter.

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In the notice, Banerjee, the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been asked to be present at the Shakespeare Sarani Police Station by noon on September 1. Officers from the Shakespeare Sarani police station arrived at O’Brien’s house on Prince Anwar Shah Road in South Kolkata shortly after 9 a.m. on Sunday.

“After several knocks, a representative of O’Brien came out, and our officers handed over the interrogation notice to him,” said a city police officer. However, neither Banerjee nor O’Brien made it clear whether they would be appearing at the police station and face the interrogation in the matter.

Tension broke out on Camac Street on Thursday afternoon after Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) staff, accompanied by police personnel, reached Abhishek Banerjee’s Camac Street office to remove the illegal billboard. However, KMC staff and police personnel faced stiff resistance from the party activists led by Abhishek Banerjee, O’Brien and other Trinamool Congress leaders.

Scuffles broke out between the cops and the party activists. In the three FIRs filed at Shakespeare Sarani Police Station in the matter, the city police have accused the Trinamool Congress activists of not only assaulting the on-duty cops but also attempting to outrage the modesty of a female police officer.

In two of the three FIRs filed in the matter, Banerjee, O’Brien and other Trinamool Congress leaders, such as Humayun Kabir and Baishwanar Chatterjee, have been named. The police have arrested 14 people in this connection so far.