(Image source from: ANI)
Mamata Banerjee, who has been chief minister three times, is in serious political trouble as the Crime Investigation Department, known as CID, came to her home in Kolkata. They are looking into a controversy about allegedly forged signatures of MLAs, which has caused a major split in the party.
According to sources, officials from the state investigation agency, along with members from the Kalighat police station and a large group of female police officers, reached the party's main office located at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street around noon. The CID’s actions happened just days after they sent notices requesting information about the alleged forging of signatures from Trinamool lawmakers on a document presented to the Assembly Speaker for recognizing the Leader of Opposition. CID officials at the scene mentioned that the search is based on a response given by Trinamool's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to an earlier notice from the agency.
"A CID officer explained that Abhishek Banerjee mentioned that the signatures of MLAs were gathered at their main office at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street. We are here to investigate that statement," the officer said. The complaint was made after two Trinamool MLAs, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, told Speaker Rathindra Bose on May 27 that there was "no resolution passed regarding the appointment of LoP" during the party's meeting on May 6, which the party had officially claimed. They stated that they had signed the meeting resolution book on a later date, May 19. The two MLAs accused the claimed May 6 resolution of being "created and faked" and reported that up to 14 out of 70 signatures were in "block letters. " These claims led to an FIR being filed and a CID investigation starting. The Trinamool party expelled both MLAs shortly after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari publicly named them. Three CID teams are currently involved in the searches. One team is at Mamata Banerjee’s home, where she is not present as she is in Delhi. Another team is at the office of Abhishek Banerjee, who is Mamata Banerjee's nephew and an MP. The third team is at Abhishek Banerjee's house.
