CID Police Search Office, Residences of Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek as She Meets Sonia Gandhi
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 9: As the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was meeting the opposition INDIA bloc leaders in Delhi, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police on Tuesday reached her residence at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street in Kolkata for an investigation into the allegations of forgery of signatures of some of the party MLAs.
The CID officials said since the address was referred to as the TMC party office, they wanted to search the premises. After several minutes of standoff with party officials, the CID team entered the premises.
In Delhi, a day after the INDIA bloc meeting stressing unity and better coordination among the alliance partners, Ms Banerjee, the former West Bengal chief minister, on Tuesday met the Congress leader Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence. Sources said the two leaders have discussed the strategy between the two parties going forward after the opposition bloc meeting, and following an exodus of Trinamool members after the party’s defeat to the BJP in the recent Bengal polls.
The meeting followed after Ms Gandhi, the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, and Banerjee met each other warmly with a hug at the opposition bloc’s meeting on Monday. The Congress shared pictures of the bonhomie between the two leaders. The meeting comes in the wake of a rebellion within the Trinamool, with several party MPs deciding to form a separate group and align with the ruling NDA.
A majority of Trinamool’s 80 MLAs have already formed a separate group led by Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of opposition in the state Assembly. This was the first closed-door meeting between Banerjee and Gandhi after Trinamool’s defeat in the polls, and alleged attacks on party workers and MP Abhishek Banerjee after the elections.
The CID team earlier in the day reached the TMC’s central party office cum Kalighat residence of Ms Banerjee even as she and the party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee were away in Delhi. Officials of the state investigating agency, accompanied by personnel from the Kalighat police station and a large contingent of women police personnel, arrived at the party’s central office at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street around noon, sources said.
The CID’s move comes days after the agency served notices seeking information related to the alleged forging of signatures of TMC legislators on a proposal submitted to the Assembly Speaker for recognition of the Leader of Opposition.
According to CID officials present at the spot, the search was sought on the basis of a reply submitted by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to an earlier notice issued by the agency. “In his response, Abhishek Banerjee stated that signatures of MLAs were collected at the party’s central office at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street. Based on that statement, we have come here as part of the investigation,” a CID officer said.
However, it led to brief exchange of words with the party officials. TMC leader and former MP Subhasish Chakraborty said the party had objected to the search in the absence of Abhishek Banerjee. Mr Chakraborty said he cannot allow CID officials as both Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee were not present in the house. He urged the officials to come back a day or two later when either of them would be present on the premises. However, CID officials countered and said Mr Chakraborty was “obstructing the investigation.”
A letter nominating Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition was submitted to the Speaker of West Bengal Assembly on May 20, but MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha alleged that their signatures were forged and ended up being expelled from the party. An FIR has been registered on the basis of the complaint at Kolkata’s Hare Street Police Station.
The case was later handed over to the CID. The State agency had issued several summons to party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee who had signed the said letter. However, he did not appear in person citing health issues and sought time for 15 days. Three CID teams are conducting searches. One team was at the residence of Mamata Banerjee, another tem was at Abhishek Banerjee’s residence and a third team was at Abhishek’s office.
Meanwhile, the Mamata Banerjee camp on Tuesday hit out at the rebels a day after they reached out to the Speaker to back the BJP-led ruling NDA, powering a mutiny that now risks splitting the Trinamool Congress. Senior MP Kalyan Banerjee called this an “act of betrayal” but gave out a message of relief that the rebels had now revealed their loyalties.
“We are very happy that the double-character people are gone. Whoever wants to go can go. We are okay with you leaving. But you cannot take the name of the Trinamool and Mamata Banerjee. People know the truth, and they stand by us,” he said. However, he claimed the BJP won’t take in any of them. “They don’t have enough numbers to merge with another party,” the Lok Sabha MP told a press conference.
Sources indicate that the Trinamool has reached out to the rebels. The party’s Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee is trying to convince them to return, reminding them of their close bond with Mamata Banerjee. But they remain adamant, sources said.
The 20-odd MPs had given a clear message to the party high command on Monday and chose their own chief whip, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, in a striking defiance of Mamata Banerjee’s decision to give the key parliamentary post to Kalyan Banerjee. They had even written to the Speaker expressing their desire to back the NDA. On this, Kalyan Banerjee said they would wait for the Speaker’s decision before taking any legal recourse.
He, however, did not let go of his chance to take heavy digs at the rebels. He claimed the BJP was trying to break his party and asked if the rebels were afraid of the central government. “These leaders once campaigned for the Trinamool and praised Mamata Banerjee’s leadership. Just because the Trinamool is not in power, these MPs are making such allegations. These rebel MPs cannot live without power,” he said. Banerjee also dared the rebels to visit their constituency and face those who had voted for them.
