Kolkata A written complaint from two Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislators, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, has led to a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe into the forging of some signatures on the May 19 resolution nominating Subhandeep Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition (LoP), West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Monday, an announcement that prompted the TMC to immediately expel the legislators.
“Ritabrata Banerjee and Sundipan Saha submitted a written complaint to Assembly Speaker Rathendra Bose on May 25, stating that no resolution on the issue was adopted at a meeting called on May 6. They said that of the 70 signatures in the May 19 resolution submitted to the Speaker, 13 signatures were in capital letters and not signatures,” Adhikari told the media about the investigation that began last week.
The chief minister said when the CID began its investigation based on the complaint filed by the association’s principal secretary at Hare Street police station in Kolkata, three of the 13 TMC MLAs questioned by the CID said they had not signed the LoP nomination decision. “These MLAs are Baharul Islam, Arup Roy and Suvashis Das,” Adhikari added.
TMC national general secretary Abhijit Banerjee was also summoned for questioning in the case on Monday, but he did not appear. Banerjee asked for 15 days to appear for questioning, saying that he was not feeling well. He was harassed and manhandled in Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district on Saturday.
TMC state general secretary and MLA Kunal Ghosh described Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandiban Saha as traitors. “They won the elections due to the mercy of Mamata Banerjee. Instead of going to her, the traitors went to the Speaker,” Ghosh said.
Ritabrata declared that he had no regrets. “Someone should whistleblower. No resolution was adopted on May 6. The meeting was called only for the standing ovation of Abhishek Banerjee. Those who did not stand up were reprimanded,” he said after his expulsion.
The Prime Minister described the TMC as a “party of cheaters”.
“The TMC National General Secretary gave his first letter to the TMC Chairman on May 9 stating that Chattopadhyay had been nominated as a member of the Congress party. Due to a technical glitch, the TMC Chief Secretary acted on the instructions of the TMC Chairman and asked the TMC on May 18 to submit minutes of the meeting where the TMC adopted the resolution. The TMC National General Secretary submitted a copy of the resolution with 70 signatures on May 20. Many names were written in capital letters,” Adhikari said.
“Neither this government nor the BJP has anything to do with this investigation. The Hare Street police station has approached the government as many MLAs live in the areas. I have ordered a CID investigation as it is the best agency to conduct a state-level investigation,” Adhikari said.
These developments happened a day after only 19 out of 80 TMC MLAs attended the discussion on the CID probe into Mamata Banerjee’s residence in Kolkata, forcing the leadership to postpone the party’s legislative meeting.
