Kolkata: A single-judge vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Friday, rejected the plea from Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress general secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha member, to fast-track the hearing on his petition challenging the CID summons for interrogation in the MLA signature mismatch case.
The case involves a mismatch in the signatures of some of the party’s MLAs on a resolution nominating legislators to four crucial slots in the Assembly.
Abhishek Banerjee, also the nephew of the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, on June 3 approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the CID summons in the matter and seeking protection from coercive police action, including arrest.
In the same petition, his counsel had pleaded for a fast-track hearing.
The matter came up for hearing on Friday morning at the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge vacation bench of Justice Chaitali Chattopadhyay. However, the single-judge vacation bench dismissed the plea of the Trinamool Congress general secretary for a fast-track hearing.
Initially, Abhishek Banerjee was summoned at the CID office on June 1. However, instead of appearing on that day, he sought 15 days to appear on the pretext of his physical condition after being assaulted by the public at Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district on May 30. However, in the evening of June 1, the CID sleuths served him a second notice asking him to appear at the CID office on June 8.
Interestingly, Abhishek Banerjee and his aunt, the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, are scheduled to be in New Delhi on June 8 to attend a meeting of the opposition, INDIA bloc.
A few days ago, Abhishek Banerjee had sent a letter to the office of the new Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly, Rathindra Bose, naming Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition, Nayna Bandopadhyay and Asima Patra as the two deputy leaders of the opposition and Firhad Hakim as the Chief Whip of Trinamool Congress’ legislative party in the state Assembly.
The Speaker, however, insisted that the resolution, carrying the signatures of the Trinamool Congress legislators and endorsing the four names, should be submitted along with the letter from Abhishek Banerjee. Thereafter, a resolution carrying the signatures of the Trinamool Congress legislators was submitted to the office of the Speaker.
However, things took a dramatic turn after two Trinamool Congress legislators, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, pointed out the mismatch in the signatures of some party legislators to the office of the Speaker. Soon after that, the Assembly secretariat handed over the investigation to the CID and the latter summoned Abhishek Banerjee for interrogation.
(IANS)
