Kolkata: Veteran Trinamool MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay on Saturday handed over a copy of the controversial resolution book to CID investigators as the agency intensified its probe into the Signgate case.The Ballygunge MLA said he himself called the CID to come over to his place and collect the copy of the May 19 resolution, for which the agency had raided the home of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and later grilled him for eight-and-a-half hours.Investigators earlier went to the homes of Abhishek, Mamata Banerjee, Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra and Kunal Ghosh in search of the original resolution document and questioned several prominent party figures. Abhishek was summoned multiple times to Bhawani Bhawan and was also questioned face-to-face with Ghosh as officers attempted to piece together the events.A six-member CID team visited Chattopadhyay’s Bhowanipore home around 9.30 am. “Since the matter was being heard in Calcutta High Court, the resolution copy book was with my lawyer. After the subsequent proceedings, it was returned to me. I then called the CID and asked them to come. I handed over a resolution copy book and some other documents. The CID can say how much cooperation I have extended to the probe,” Chattopadhyay said after the team’s one-hour visit.Without naming Ritabrata Banerjee directly, Chattopadhyay once again targeted the rebel camp. “We had called everyone to the meeting in good faith. The people who forged the signatures went straight to the speaker after doing so,” he said.The veteran legislator, already questioned twice, is learnt to have told investigators that all TMC MLAs, except one, were present when the signatures were collected. He also alleged that those who later broke away from the party had hatched a conspiracy.The alleged forgery of legislators’ signatures on a resolution copy sparked one of the most dramatic political crises in Bengal in recent years. The controversy eventually led to a rebellion within TMC, with a section of MLAs breaking ranks and rallying behind Ritabrata, who finally became leader of the opposition.The faction subsequently claimed to represent the “real Trinamool” and was later recognised as the principal opposition group in the assembly.
