West Bengal: A team of the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Saturday served a notice to Trinamool Congress (TMC) National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, summoning him for questioning in connection with the alleged MLA signature forgery case.

According to news agency ANI, the CID has asked Banerjee to appear at Bhabani Bhavan at 12:00 PM on Monday, June 1.

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A four-member CID team on Saturday visited Banerjee's residence, 'Santiniketan' on Harish Mukherjee Road in Kolkata to serve the notice. Upon arrival, officials were informed that the TMC leader was not present at the residence.

According to a report by News18 Bangla, the investigators later reached Banerjee's Kaligaht residence, where he personally received the notice from the officials.

'Even If You Slit My Throat...': Abhishek Banerjee

Reacting to the summons, Banerjee struck a defiant tone

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, stating, "Let them do whatever they want. Understand it this way, earlier, it was just the ED and CBI, but now they have added the Bengal Police, Kolkata Police, and even the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The number of investigating agencies used against me has grown from two or three to five. They think they can deploy five or six agencies to blackmail me into cowering down, but I am not that kind of person."

 

He further added, "Even if you slit my throat or do anything you want, you will have to think 10 times and take 7 births to make me cower down. I am not a traitor."

Banerjee also claimed that the CID officials seemed unaware that he had not been residing at the Harish Mukherjee Road address for several years.

CID Visits Four TMC MLA's Residence

Earlier on Thursday, a team from the CID, the West Bengal Police's intelligence wing, visited the homes of four Trinamool Congress MLAs, including Nayana Bandyopadhyay and Kunal Ghosh. This comes amid an ongoing investigation into allegations that the signatures of several TMC MLAs were forged on a letter submitted to the West Bengal Assembly Speaker regarding the appointment of senior TMC leader Shovandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the House.

According to sources, a written complaint was filed by the Assembly Secretariat at the Hare Street police station in this matter. The CID is now investigating this complaint. It has been reported that signature experts have been involved in the investigation with the assistance of the Lalbazar Police Headquarters.