Kolkata: Trinamool Congress general secretary and Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, on Tuesday arrived at the Shakespeare Sarani Police station in central Kolkata to face interrogation in connection with the FIRs filed over the removal of an illegal billboard from the roof of his party office on Camac Street.
Banerjee arrived at the police station a little after noon. By then, a large number of Trinamool Congress supporters had already assembled in front of the said police station.
They shouted slogans when he arrived and went inside the police station. “As long as our general secretary is inside the police station, all of us will remain assembled there,” one Trinamool Congress activist told media persons.
The party’s Rajya Sabha member, Derek O’Brien, was supposed to appear at the Shakespeare Sarani Police Station on Monday and face the interrogation in the same matter. But he skipped the appearance, and instead his counsel sent a letter to Kolkata Police seeking seven more days for appearance.
However, Kolkata Police refused to give him seven days and served O’Brien a second notice to appear at the said police station by noon on Wednesday.
Abhishek Banerjee’s personal assistant, Sumit Roy, is also supposed to appear at the same police station by noon on Wednesday.
Tension broke out on Camac Street on August 27 after Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) staff, accompanied by police personnel, reached Abhishek Banerjee’s Camac Street office to remove the illegal billboard.
The KMC staff and police personnel faced stiff resistance from party activists led by Abhishek Banerjee, O’Brien and other Trinamool Congress leaders. Scuffles broke out between the cops and the party activists.
In the three FIRs filed at Shakespeare Sarani Police Station, the city police have accused the Trinamool Congress activists of not only assaulting the on-duty cops but also attempting to outrage the modesty of a female police officer.
In two of the three FIRs filed, Banerjee, O’Brien and other Trinamool Congress leaders, such as Humayun Kabir and Baishwanar Chatterjee, have been named. The police have arrested 14 people in this connection so far.
(IANS)
