Kolkata: Trinamool Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee has approached the Calcutta High Court seeking the scrapping of the FIR registered against him by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the legislators’ signatures mismatch case.
Earlier, senior Trinamool legislator Sovandeb Chattopadhyay had challenged a CID notice in the matter before the High Court.
Based on Banerjee’s petition, the High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the West Bengal government, which is a party in the case. The matter will be heard next week when the state counsel will present arguments.
Banerjee has already been questioned twice by CID officials.
The CID inquiry relates to mismatches in signatures of several Trinamool legislators on a resolution concerning appointments to opposition bench slots in the West Bengal assembly.
Last month, Banerjee wrote to Speaker Rathindra Bose naming Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition, Nayna Bandopadhyay and Asima Patra as deputy leaders, and Firhad Hakim as Chief Whip of the Trinamool legislative party.
The Speaker insisted that a resolution signed by Trinamool legislators endorsing the names be submitted along with Banerjee’s letter.
The resolution was later submitted, but expelled Trinamool legislators Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha pointed out mismatches in some signatures.
The assembly secretariat then handed over the probe to the CID.
(IANS)
