CID raids TMC offices in Kolkata ahead of Abhishek Banerjee's appearance in signature 'forgery' case

KOLKATA: The CID of West Bengal Police on Tuesday carried out raids at two key Trinamool Congress offices in Kolkata — one near former chief minister Mamata Banerjee's Kalighat residence and another on Camac Street linked to Abhishek Banerjee — as part of the ongoing probe into the alleged signature forgery case. At Kalighat, investigators were initially blocked from entering by former TMC Rajya Sabha member Subhasish Chakraborty, who said he was temporarily looking after the office. However, the situation changed after a large contingent of Kolkata Police and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel reached the spot. CID officers subsequently entered the office and began their search operation despite objections from Chakraborty and some of his associates. A similar situation unfolded at the Camac Street office, where CID officials reportedly encountered resistance from staff members when they arrived on Tuesday afternoon. Police personnel from Shakespeare Sarani Police Station later reached the location, following which the CID team entered the office and began its search. At the time of filing this report, search operations were continuing at both the Kalighat party office and the Camac Street office linked to Abhishek Banerjee. The searches came on a day when Abhishek Banerjee had been asked to appear before CID officials at Bhabani Bhavan in south Kolkata by 5 pm in connection with an ongoing investigation into alleged mismatched signatures of several Trinamool Congress MLAs on a key resolution relating to Opposition-designated posts in the West Bengal Assembly. The notice issued for Tuesday was the third consecutive summons served on Abhishek Banerjee in the matter. According to reports, both Abhishek Banerjee and Mamata Banerjee are currently in New Delhi and attended the meeting of the Opposition INDIA bloc on Monday.