From Z-plus security to stripped surveillance: Why cops landed at Abhishek Banerjee’s residence

KOLKATA: Plainclothes cops knocked on the doors of Shantiniketan — the residence of Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee — on Monday and walked out with a large monitor and hard disks after several minutes of high drama.

The heavily guarded residence of Banerjee saw a visible security scale-down after May 4, with only a few cops guarding it during the day and an armed mobile unit augmenting it at night. Before the scale-down, Banerjee was a Z-plus protectee, with multiple Kolkata Police units guarding his home, including a stationed armoured vehicle.

On Monday, before the plainclothes cops walked in, there was additional police deployment at Banerjee's home. The cops who walked out with the monitor and hard disks refused to answer any queries from reporters. A PTI report quoted a senior Kolkata Police officer who sought to downplay the development. "There is no law-and-order issue or any special operation. It was part of a routine official exercise," the officer said.

Officials said the team removed a TV monitor that was attached to the security scanner, which was earlier installed at the entrance of the Trinamool leader's residence. The agency report cited another senior police officer as saying: "The equipment was placed there for security purposes. Later, it was decided that the machines would be taken back as they belonged to the govt."

Sources in Kolkata Police circles claimed that the monitor was previously set up to track feeds from the nearby security cameras. However, following the withdrawal of Banerjee's Z-plus security cover, the police dismantled and removed the extra cameras, even though the monitor remained inside the house.

While Trinamool claimed it was a routine visit to take away security equipment following the downsizing of Abhishek's security, the hushed manner in which the police team left with a computer monitor — as a large number of media personnel kept chasing them without getting an answer — left a lot to speculation.

Saket Gokhale, a former Rajya Sabha MP and Trinamool spokesperson, alleged: "Another example of pathetic sensationalism…on BJP's direction. Abhishek Banerjee was a Z category protectee until his security was abruptly withdrawn purely out of vendetta. Police came to remove the metal detectors that were installed at his residence as part of security protocol. How many cops are required to remove a few metal detectors? Five cops do the actual job while 50 stand there creating a tamasha on the orders of an illegal govt with a stolen mandate," wrote Gokhale.

The Bengal BJP did not comment on the issue.