Abhishek Banerjee summoned by Bengal CID over alleged ‘fake signatures’ in assembly

The West Bengal CID on Saturday issued a notice to Abhishek Banerjee, directing him to appear before investigators as part of an inquiry into the alleged use of forged signatures of party MLAs in a document submitted to the Assembly Secretariat supporting Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay for the post of Leader of the Opposition, according to PTI.

CID sources said the notice, effectively a summons for questioning, requires Banerjee to appear at the agency's headquarters, Bhabani Bhavan, at noon on Monday. The notice was personally delivered to him at his residence on Kalighat Road.

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 up at Banerjee's residence, named Shantiniketan, on 188A, Harish Mukherjee Road in south Kolkata, at 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 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 with 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 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 owes its roots to a controversial letter submitted to the Assembly Secretariat on May 19 and signed by some 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 the MLA, did not match the one in the letter of support for Chattopadhyay.

As part of its investigation, the CID has questioned several TMC legislators, including Nayna Banerjee, Chandranath Sinha, Kunal Ghosh, and Baharul Islam.

On May 6, around two days after the assembly election results were announced, Mamata Banerjee convened a meeting of the party's newly elected MLAs at her residence in Kalighat. During the gathering, Abhishek Banerjee engaged with the legislators to discuss the party's strategy and deliberate on the selection of the Leader of the Opposition.

(With inputs from PTI)