KOLKATA A written complaint by two Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislators, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, led to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe into the forgery of some signatures on a May 19 resolution nominating Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of the opposition (LoP), West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Monday, an announcement that promptly led the TMC to expel the two legislators.
“Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha submitted a written complaint to assembly speaker Rathindra Bose on May 25 stating that no resolution on this 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 were in block letters and not signatures,” Adhikari told the media on the investigation that started last week.
The chief minister said when the CID started its investigation based on the complaint lodged by the assembly’s principal secretary at Kolkata’s Hare Street police station, three of the 13 TMC MLAs questioned by CID said they did not sign the resolution to nominate the LoP. “These MLAs are Baharul Islam, Arup Roy and Suvashis Das,” Adhikari added.
TMC national general secretary Abhijit Banerjee was also summoned for questioning in this case on Monday, but he was a no show. Banerjee sought 15 days to turn up for questioning, saying he was unwell. He was heckled and manhandled at Sonarpur in the South 24 Parganas district on Saturday.
TMC state general secretary and MLA Kunal Ghosh called Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha traitors. “They won the elections because of Mamata Banerjee’s mercy. Instead of going to her, the traitors went to the speaker,” Ghosh said.
Ritabrata declared that he had no regrets. “Someone has to be the whistle blower. No resolution was adopted on May 6. The meeting was called only to give Abhishek Banerjee a standing ovation. Those who did not stand up were rebuked,” he said after his expulsion.
The chief minister called the TMC “a party of cheats”.
“The TMC national general secretary gave his first letter to the speaker on May 9 stating Chattopadhyay had been nominated as the LoP. Since it was technically flawed the assembly’s principal secretary acted on the instructions of the speaker and asked the TMC on May 18 to submit the minutes of meeting where TMC MLAs adopted the resolution. The TMC national general secretary submitted a copy of the resolution bearing 70 signatures on May 20. Several of the names were in block letters,” Adhikari said.
“Neither this government nor the Bharatiya Janata Party has anything to do with this investigation. The Hare Street police station contacted the government since many of the MLAs live in the districts. I ordered the CID probe since it is the best agency to conduct a state-wide probe,” Adhikari said.
The developments occurred a day after only 19 of the 80 TMC MLAs attended the discussion on the CID probe at Mamata Banerjee’s Kolkata residence, forcing the leadership to postpone its legislative party meeting.
