Kolkata: Bengal CID’s special investigation team (SIT) is set to make Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and fellow party MLAs Kunal Ghosh (Beleghata) and Madan Mitra (Kamarhati) sit face-to-face during their interrogation in the Signgate case at Bhabani Bhawan on Sunday.This will be the second time when CID will grill Abhishek after Thursday’s 5-hour-30-minute questioning that ended at 11.30 pm. The TMC MP will have to face investigators again on Tuesday in connection with a separate pre-poll hate speech case.Reacting to the summons, Ghosh said: “I have always cooperated with CID in this case and will do so again. I have been asked to go at 3.30pm. I will go and face the questions.”Calcutta High Court on Thursday granted Abhishek a three-week immunity against arrest in the Signgate case but specifically asked him to cooperate with the investigators. CID said it wanted to question Abhishek again because he had “avoided direct answers” last time.CID sources said Abhishek repeatedly answered “I don’t know” to several questions. Investigators sought his clarification on how signatures of at least five MLAs who are said to have been absent from the party meeting appeared on the resolution.A senior official said the probe will focus on establishing the timeline of when the signatures were made, under what circumstances they were prepared and submitted and if there was any coercion or intimidation involved.Abhishek disputed CID’s claim saying that he had cooperated with investigators and said he will attend the June 14 summons. “I have never skipped or fled any investigation. Earlier, whenever CBI or ED called me in Kolkata and Delhi, I complied and cooperated. I am doing the same now as well,” he said.The case relates to a letter submitted to the assembly secretariat on May 19, purportedly carrying the signatures of around 70 TMC MLAs and naming party senior Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as leader of the opposition. Allegations later surfaced that several signatures were forged.The two whistleblowers — Uluberia MLA Ritabrata Banerjee and Entally MLA Sandipan Saha — were expelled from TMC. Days later, the duo claimed support of 58 MLAs to stake claim of TMC’s legislative party, where Ritabrata was chosen the LoP. The complaint led the assembly secretary to lodge an FIR at Hare Street police station, following which an SIT, headed by a DIG-rank officer, was constituted by CM Suvendu Adhikari to probe the matter.
