Kolkata: A team from West Bengal’s West Midnapore conducted searches at the residence of the Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee early Saturday to trace his executive assistant Sumit Roy.
A team from Salboni police station in West Midnapore, led by a Deputy Superintendent of Police and accompanied by the central armed police forces (CAPF) personnel, arrived at the residence of Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, at Kalighat Road in south Kolkata at around 3 a.m.
Soon, a team from the local Kalighat Police Station also arrived at the spot.
First, the police team, which also had a significant number of women personnel, knocked repeatedly at the entrance. Even after not getting any response, the joint team kept on waiting outside the residence.
Finally, after waiting for over two hours, they broke open the lock of the entrance, with the help of the state Disaster Management Department personnel, and entered the residence.
The raid and search operations were intended to track Roy, who is currently absconding, in a case filed against him at Salboni Police Station.
It is learnt that a complaint was registered against Roy at the Salboni Police station in a land-grabbing case. West Midnapore police earlier this month arrested former Trinamool legislator from Medinipur Assembly constituency, Sujoy Hazra, on a complaint filed at the same police station on various charges, including land grabbing and extortion. However, the state police are yet to clarify whether the charges against Hazra and Roy are in relation to the same case or not
According to sources, the search at Abhishek Banerjee’s residence was based on the last tower location of Roy’s mobile.
State police sources said that when the team from Salboni police station started for Kolkata to track Roy, the tower location showed Roy’s mobile at Abhishek Banerjee’s residence at Kalighat Road.
The tower location also showed the presence of Roy’s mobile at the same place till around 2.30 a.m.
However, even after almost two hours of thorough search operations, Roy could not be tracked at the residence and the joint team of security forces left the area.
Meanwhile, on getting the news of the raid, Mamata Banerjee rushed to the spot from her nearby residence at Harish Chatterjee Street.
Later, Abhishek Banerjee accused the police of excesses and told media persons that the security personnel entered his residence by breaking the lock of the entrance gate.
The Trinamool leader will have to face interrogation by two investigating agencies in three different cases for three consecutive days: June 14, June 15 and June 16
June 14, Sunday, he will have to appear at the headquarters of the state police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Bhavani Bhavan for interrogation in connection with the case of mismatches in the signatures of some Trinamool legislators on a crucial resolution regarding appointments of opposition leaders in the state Assembly.
This will be the second round of interrogation in this case, as Abhishek Banerjee had already undergone a marathon grilling in the matter Thursday.
Monday, June 15, he is supposed to face interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its Salt Lake office in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school-job case.
The ED had served him a notice in the matter June 3.
Finally, Tuesday, June 16, he is again supposed to appear at the CID headquarters to face interrogation in connection with a case where he had been accused of inciting violence and threatening Union Home Minister Amit Shah before the recent Assembly polls.
The CID officials served him a notice in the matter Thursday evening.
While raid and search operations were going on at Abhishek Banerjee’s residence eon early Saturday morning, his aunt and the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee too rushed to the spot from her nearby Harish Chatterjee Road residence.