Bengal MLA signature case: CID likely to summon Abhishek Banerjee for 3rd round of interrogation

Kolkata, June 15 (IANS) The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police, probing the signature mismatch case, is considering summoning Trinamool Congress general secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, again for a third round of interrogation in the matter.

Abhishek, also the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has already been interrogated for over 14 hours in two rounds, first for around six hours on June 11 and then again for eight and a half hours on June 14.

On Sunday, the CID sleuths also questioned the Trinamool Congress legislator, Kunal Ghosh, a journalist-turned-politician, in the same case of mismatch in the signatures of some Trinamool Congress legislators on a crucial resolution about the appointment for some slots in the West Bengal Assembly, which are reserved for the opposition bench in the House.

Insiders from the state police said that during the questioning, the CID officials noted some crucial inconsistencies in the statements given by Abhishek Banerjee and Kunal Ghosh. To get clarification on such inconsistencies, the CID sleuths have decided to summon the MP from Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency in South 24 Parganas district again, which will probably be later this week.

It is learnt that on Sunday, first Banerjee and Ghosh were questioned separately by the CID’s investigating official. Later, sources said, both were made to sit face-to-face and questioned together.

Neither Abhishek Banerjee nor Kunal Ghosh, so far, have made any comment to the media on the course of interrogation. Ghosh’s period of stay and interrogation at the CID’s headquarters on Sunday were much shorter than that of his party’s general secretary.

Abhishek Banerjee first arrived at the CID’s headquarters in South Kolkata on June 11 after a single-judge vacation bench of Calcutta High Court set a deadline for him to appear and face the CID questioning in the matter. Before that, he dodged three consecutive summonses from the CID officials in the matter.

–IANS

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