TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was questioned for over five hours by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police on Thursday evening in connection with the MLAs’ signature forgery case.
The Diamond Harbour MP, who had skipped the CID summons thrice earlier, citing illness and his petition in the High Court against the probe, appeared before the probe agency hours after the Calcutta High Court granted him interim protection from arrest in connection with the ongoing police probe into the signature forgery case.
He reached the CID headquarters, Bhabani Bhawan, around 5.50 pm, soon after he landed in Kolkata on his return from New Delhi, where he had gone to attend the INDIA bloc meeting along with his aunt and party chief Mamata Banerjee.
He left the CID headquarters around 11.30 pm and did not speak to the waiting mediapersons.
The CID is probing the allegations of forged signatures of TMC MLAs in a party letter to the Assembly Speaker, recommending the appointment of Sovandeb Chatterjee as the Leader of Opposition. TMC rebels Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha had allegedly told Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari that signatures of some of the MLAs in the letter to the Speaker were forged, triggering a probe by the CID.
On Tuesday, the CID team had carried out searches at the TMC office and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence.
Earlier in the day, the single bench of Justice Kaushik Chandra granted Abhishek interim relief for three weeks while asking him to cooperate with the investigating agency.
The High Court asked Abhishek to appear before the CID by 6 pm on Thursday.
“This Court is further of the view that, for the purpose of securing or recovering any document relevant to the investigation, the Investigating Agency remains at liberty to
resort to search and seizure or to adopt any other measure permissible in law. The petitioner (Abhishek), however, cannot be compelled to be a witness against himself,” Justice Chandra stated in the order.
In the interim order, the High Court asked Abhishek to fully cooperate with the investigation, adding, “The Investigating Agency shall be at liberty to interrogate the petitioner (Abhishek) in accordance with law… In the event the petitioner’s further presence is required, the Investigating Agency shall issue at least 48 hours’ prior notice to the petitioner. The petitioner shall thereafter appear before the Investigating Agency as and when required.”
“The Investigating Agency shall not take any coercive steps against the petitioner for a period of three weeks from the date,” the High Court ordered, listing the matter after two weeks.
Earlier, appearing for Abhishek, Senior Advocate Ayan Bhattacharjee submitted, “He was not a party to the meeting as he is not an MLA. There is no allegation that he has forged the signature. Give me protection, and I will comply with the order. Tell the police not to arrest and I will go. We will go whenever we are called.”
To this, Justice Chandra said, “When will you go? Cooperate with the investigation. Give me an undertaking when you will go.”
Representing the state government, Additional Advocate General Rajdeep Majumdar opposed Abhishek’s plea of protection from arrest, saying, “He (Abhishek) wants to appear (before the CID). Let him come, but do not give him protection (from arrest). We had asked for the original resolution. Now he (Abhishek) is saying that he doesn’t have the resolution. He is saying the resolution was taken by all the MLAs, and he had forwarded it. But the MLAs have complained. He (Abhishek) had written the letter, which was forwarded to the Speaker. The Speaker asked for the minutes of the meeting. Then on May 19, he called another meeting, and the resolution, which was allegedly taken on May 6, was signed on May 19.”
“There are three parts of the allegations. Firstly, the resolution book was forged. Secondly, the signatures were forged, and thirdly, the entire resolution is forged,” the Advocate General said.
CID takes over probe into Abhishek’s ‘inflammatory’ remarks
Kolkata, June 11 The West Bengal CID has taken over the investigation into alleged inflammatory statements by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee during the Assembly election campaign, a senior police officer said on Thursday. The case was earlier investigated by the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police Station, following a complaint filed by a Baguiati resident. All case-related documents, digital evidence and materials collected during the preliminary investigation have been handed over to the CID, he said.
“A formal order has been issued transferring the investigation to the CID. The case diary, documents and digital evidence collected so far have been handed over to the agency for further investigation,” a senior police officer told PTI.
The FIR was lodged based on a complaint filed by one Rajib Sarkar at Baguiati Police Station in North 24 Parganas district on May 5, a day after the Assembly election results were declared in which TMC faced a crushing defeat.
Sarkar had alleged that the TMC MP made provocative comments on post-poll violence and the vote counting process. The complainant also claimed that the TMC leader’s “inflammatory comments” were linked to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
PTI