CID searches what till recently was West Bengal's most powerful address
Sleuths who would click heels and raise arms in salute till a few days ago swarmed Mamata’s 30B, Harish Chatterjee Street address for a 'search operation'
CID team at 30B, Harish Chatterjee Street, the premises of the Trinamool central office (white building behind the blue roof) that was searched and Mamata’s home on the opposite side - snap (The Telegraph)
Former Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Subhasish Chakraborty was the first to dissuade the CID from entering the premises.
“Our leader Mamata Banerjee is on a scheduled Delhi visit. It is known to all. She has nothing to do with this case. Then why do you need to search her house?” Chakraborty said.
The officers replied that the meeting whose resolution had allegedly forged signatures of party MLAs was held at this address, and they were “bound to” bring this address within their investigation.
The Law is taking its own course.
The voted-out CM Mamata Banerjee was in Delhi.
Many Trinamool leaders protested the police action. But that did not deter the state CID (criminal investigation department) from entering the premises, which serves as Mamata’s residence as well as the Trinamool Congress’s central office.
The CID officers spent a considerable time at the gate, being requested by partymen holding fort to do their job in the presence of Mamata or Abhishek Banerjee.
But they would have none of it. They went in.
They stayed inside for less than an hour and emerged with a “nil” seizure list.
The CID did not just knock at Mamata’s door on Tuesday afternoon. They were also at Abhishek’s Camac Street office. The role of the party’s No. II is being probed in connection with an alleged signature fraud.
Abhishek skipped the third CID summons on Tuesday.
The CID is investigating allegations that the signatures of several Trinamool MLAs were forged on a party resolution nominating Ballygunge MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the state’s leader of the Opposition.
Expelled Trinamool MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, now the leader of the rebel group, had filed a complaint at Hare Street police station alleging the forgery of signatures, following which an FIR was drawn up. The CID then took over the investigation.
Over the past few days, CID teams have visited several Trinamool MLAs to verify their signatures against those on the document under scrutiny.
Ritabrata and fellow MLA Sandipan Saha were expelled from the party for reporting the alleged forgery.
Ritabrata and fellow MLA Sandipan Saha are now part of a group that has pledged to “help” the Suvendu Adhikari government “usher in development” in Bengal. They have collated the support of 58 of the party’s 80 MLAs and staked a claim to be formally declared the main Opposition party in the Bengal Assembly.
The plea has been accepted by Speaker Rathindra Bose, a decision that has been challenged by Mamata and Sobhandeb in the high court.
Senior Trinamool leaders who continue to support Mamata rushed to Kalighat and alleged that the CID search was a ploy to malign the former chief minister, who is “nowhere attached to the alleged handwriting forgery” now being probed by the agency.
On the CID team at the residence of Former CM Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Minister Agnimitra Paul says,
"It only shows that nobody is above the Constitution, and nobody is above the law of the land. Mamata Banerjee, as an ex-Chief Minister, tolerated criminals, corruption, and whatnot for the last fifteen years. She never cared for the Constitution. She acted as if West Bengal were another country and she were the Prime Minister of that country.
So today, CID is acting, and everyone involved will be brought to book, and the public will be given justice...The people of Bengal were cheated because of her. The way she spoke against the country, demeaned the central forces, the Prime Minister, and even the Honourable President, she should be booked, she should be arrested"
On 20 TMC MPs writing a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, she says, "...No MP or MLA is with Mamata Banerjee, because TMC has no ideology, no foundation. Fifteen years were only about corruption, syndicates, and whatnot...
They don’t want to be part of a party that did nothing for development, that supported corruption, and ignored atrocities against women. They don’t want to be associated with such a party."
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