Kolkata, May 30 (IANS) A team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police on Saturday visited the residence of Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at Harish Mukherjee Road in South Kolkata.
Security personnel informed the sleuths that no one had been staying there for the last few days. While the CID team was at the Harish Mukherjee Road property, Banerjee was present at the residence of the party’s state general secretary and legislator Kunal Ghosh in North Kolkata.
Later, the CID served a notice to Banerjee at his Kalighat residence in South Kolkata, ordering him to appear at their headquarters on June 1.
Banerjee confirmed receipt of the notice and said he would cooperate with the investigating agency as per legal advice.
“After taking legal advice in the matter, I will extend all cooperation. But I will never bow down. If they wish, they can arrest me,” he told reporters outside his Kalighat residence.
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 the 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, Banerjee, as the party’s general secretary, had sent a letter to the Assembly Secretariat nominating Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the 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.
Earlier, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had served notice to Banerjee regarding the Harish Mukherjee Road property, registered in the name of Leaps & Bounds Private Limited, a company reportedly owned by members of the Banerjee family.
Since the announcement of the West Bengal Assembly election results on May 4, which ended the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year regime, Banerjee had remained homebound. On Saturday, he came out and met a party worker at Beliaghata in North Kolkata who was allegedly a victim of post-poll violence.
Later, speaking to reporters outside his Kalighat residence, Banerjee said if CID sleuths wished to talk to him, they would have to come there. On notices related to his property, he claimed the KMC should clarify which portion of the building was illegal.
–IANS
src/dan