Kolkata: Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress General Secretary and Lok Sabha member, has sought time to appear before the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the signature-mismatch case.
An insider of the party said that Banerjee has sent a letter to the CID seeking time to appear before its officers, as he is still recovering from the health issues which he encountered on May 30 when he was heckled and harassed while on his way to meet the family of a party worker in South 24 Parganas district’s Sonarpur.
According to the party insider, his physical condition is still bad due to Saturday’s attack. “There is pain in his jaw and soreness all over his body. That is why Abhishek Banerjee is not going to Bhabani Bhawan in response to the CID summons,” the source said.
The party insider further said that Abhishek still has several medical tests pending, which will take some time. “Overall, Abhishek Banerjee wants to take some more time to appear before the CID,” the source added.
Banerjee was summoned to the CID Monday afternoon after being sent a notice to join the investigation into the Trinamool MLAs’ signature forgery case.
Ahead of this development, the CID formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate allegations of forged signatures of Trinamool Congress MLAs. It was learnt that an officer of the rank of DIG is leading it. Apart from this, a DSP and two inspectors are also in the team.
This appearance of Abhishek Banerjee is in connection with an interrogation concerning discrepancies in the signatures of the party’s MLAs related to nominations for specific important positions in the West Bengal Assembly.
This comes soon after the incident of heckling and physical assault that occurred in Sonarpur.
The CID issued him a notice for interrogation May 30. Initially, the agency’s investigators visited his home located on Harish Mukherjee Road to deliver the notice. Subsequently, upon discovering that Banerjee was at his other residence in Kalighat, the CID officers proceeded there and personally presented him the notice.
Abhishek Banerjee subsequently stated that he would cooperate with the investigation while adhering to appropriate legal counsel.
The notice is reportedly linked to the ongoing CID investigation into mismatches in the signatures of some Trinamool Congress legislators on a resolution nominating the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, two deputy leaders of the opposition, and the party’s Chief Whip in the legislative wing.
Before submitting the resolution, Abhishek Banerjee, as the party’s general secretary, had sent a letter to the Assembly Secretariat nominating Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of Opposition, Nayna Bandyopadhyay and Asima Patra as deputy leaders, and Firhad Hakim, also Mayor of Kolkata, as Chief Whip. However, Speaker Rathindra Bose insisted on the submission of a resolution carrying the signatures of Trinamool MLAs. When mismatches in some signatures were noticed, the matter was referred to the CID.
