Kolkata, May 30 (PTI) The West Bengal CID on Saturday served a notice to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, asking him to appear before its sleuths in connection with a probe into alleged
forged signatures of party MLAs endorsing Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of 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.
The case stems from a controversy over a letter submitted by the TMC to the Assembly Secretariat on May 19 and signed by some 70 newly elected party MLAs offering support to Chattopadhyay as the LoP, a cabinet minister-rank post, which has been brought under the police scanner for dubious authenticity.
The notice to the TMC leader was, however, hand-delivered only after a dramatic sequence of events that unfolded before two of Banerjee-owned properties in the Kalighat area of south Kolkata, drawing considerable public attention and extending for about an hour and a half.
It began after a team of five CID officers landed up at Banerjee's residence, named Shantiniketan, on 188A, Harish Mukherjee Road in south Kolkata, around 1.25 pm, but failed to gain access to the house on account of the leader's absence at 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 put 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 about another 10 minutes following their refusal to hand over the summons to Banerjee's office staff.
The notice was eventually served personally to Banerjee, who acknowledged receipt before the team left around 2.50 pm, officials said.
Banerjee had returned home after visiting the family of a TMC post-poll violence victim in north Kolkata and was preparing to travel to Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district to visit more such families later in the day when the CID sleuths managed to catch him for handing over the summons.
"I'm yet to see the content of the notice. I will consult with my lawyers and make an appropriate response. I will surely cooperate with the probe in whatever manner possible. If required, I will appear before them," Banerjee told reporters after the departure of the probe team.
"I don't live at Shantiniketan building for the last seven years. As investigating officers, they should know it, but they are also doing their job. I have received the notice because I did not want to keep them waiting any longer," he added.
Banerjee alleged that the move was motivated by political vendetta and 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 if they have the guts to do it. I am not running away," the TMC leader said.
Police sources said the TMC submitted its first letter regarding the LoP issue on May 6, but the Assembly rejected it because it was not sent by the TMC legislative party, a mandatory requirement.
A second letter signed by the TMC MLAs was submitted on May 19, but some of the signatures did not match the Assembly records, a police officer said.
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 the 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, some 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 LoP selection.
The controversy has led the Assembly secretariat to hold back the allotment of the chamber to the Leader of Opposition, triggering protests from TMC legislators at the legislative premises.
Following the serving of notice to Banerjee on Saturday, the CID team also handed over a summons to TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh at his north Kolkata residence. PTI SMY BDC SMY MNB
