KOLKATA, May 30: 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, 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. (PTI)
