Kolkata: CID sleuths visited TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee’s residence on Monday evening for the second time in just over 48 hours in connection with a signature forgery case and served him another notice for appearance before investigators on June 8, sources said.
He has been directed to appear at the CID headquarters, Bhabani Bhavan, for questioning in the case of alleged use of fake signatures of party MLAs in a communication to the Assembly speaker, endorsing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay’s selection as the Leader of Opposition (LoP).
This came after he avoided an appearance before the CID on Monday and sought two weeks’ time, citing health reasons, after the agency summoned him in connection with the probe.
“Dada (Abhishek Banerjee) has signed and received the appearance notice. He will decide on the next course of action,” Ayan Ghosh, an employee with Banerjee’s office, told reporters outside his residence after the sleuths left.
The CID team reached the TMC MP’s residence around 5.30 pm and recorded videos of the premises as part of its probe, an officer of the investigating agency said.
“The videography is being conducted to document the premises and collect evidence,” he said. “The inquiry is progressing in accordance with the law. Necessary statements and materials linked to the case are being examined.”
The CID took over the probe into the signature forgery case from Kolkata Police on May 28, a day after the Hare Street police station registered a case based on a complaint from the principal secretary of the state assembly with charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
The probe agency has, so far, questioned 13 TMC MLAs in connection with the case.
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The complaint was lodged after two TMC MLAs — Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha — informed Speaker Rathindra Bose on May 27 that “no resolution was adopted about the selection of LoP” in the party’s May 6 meeting, as claimed in the party’s official communication to the Speaker, and that the duo had signed the meeting resolution book on a later date on May 19.
The two MLAs alleged that the so-called May 6 resolution was “manufactured and fabricated” and stated that as many as 14 of the 70 signatures were in “block letters”.
On Monday, the TMC expelled both MLAs from the party for alleged “anti-party activities”, minutes after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari publicly revealed their names.
According to the CID, Banerjee, the TMC’s national general secretary, had first intimated the Speaker of the Bengal assembly, on May 9, that the party had chosen Chattopadhyay as LoP, Asima Patra and Nayna Bandyopadhyay as deputy LoPs and Firhad Hakim as the chief whip.
Agency officers said that he followed up the intimation with a written communication to the Speaker on May 20, where he enclosed a copy of the meeting resolution book along with the attendance sheet containing signatures of some 70 MLAs present at the May 6 meeting held at former chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence.
“Of the 13 TMC MLAs whose statements have been recorded by the CID so far, three legislators — Baharul Islam of Canning Purba, Arup Roy of Madhya Howrah and Subhasis Das of Maheshtala — have categorically said the signatures in the meeting resolution book are not theirs,” Adhikari told reporters.
“The Canning Purba MLA has further said he was present at his residence in Bhangar on May 6 and did not attend any meeting in Kolkata,” he added.
Abhishek Banerjee, who was served a notice to appear before the investigating officer on June 1 with the original meeting resolution book dated May 6, has sent a letter to the investigating officer through his advocate seeking a fortnight’s time, citing ill-health on account of the incident at Sonarpur, CID officials said.
The TMC national general secretary was attacked on Saturday when he visited the house of an alleged post-poll violence victim at Sonarpur town in South 24 Parganas district. He received treatment at two private hospitals that evening amid high drama with party supremo Mamata Banerjee present by his side.
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