Kolkata/Midnapore: Kalighat and Salboni cops on Saturday broke open locks to enter Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee‘s Kalighat Road home in search of his personal assistant, Sumit Roy, an accused in a West Midnapore land-deal related corruption case.Trinamool chief and former CM Mamata Banerjee rushed to her nephew’s home around 6.30 am after receiving news of police breaking into his home. She stayed there throughout the search operation and drove out only after the cops left around 8 am.“We went to the MP’s residence around 3 am after tracking Roy through his cell phone tower location. We waited for over three hours but no one opened the door, forcing us to call disaster management group personnel, who brought gas cutters to break open the locks,” a senior Salboni police officer said, adding that Roy was not found at Abhishek’s residence. Roy lives in Mahabirtala, which is not very far from Kalighat.The Saturday morning drama is yet another indication of the net closing in on Abhishek, who is now accused in multiple cases, ranging from the Signgate controversy and his poll campaign speeches to a 2018 political assault case and a 2020 Amphan relief corruption case. The ED and CBI had earlier implicated him in multiple cases, spanning coal-smuggling and cattle-smuggling to school recruitment scam.Abhishek had spent 5 hours and 30 minutes being grilled by CID at its Bhawani Bhavan headquarters on Thursday following a Calcutta High Court order in the forged signature case. Over the next three days, he will have to appear before CID and ED in three separate cases — forged signatures (Sunday noon, CID), state primary school recruitment irregularities (Monday, ED) and pre-poll hate speech (Tuesday, CID).The early morning raid at his Kalighat home came after a 2 am general diary at Kalighat police station by Salboni cops. A large posse of male and female police officers along with central force personnel then reached Abhishek’s home in search of Roy.Sources said Roy’s name surfaced during the interrogation of former Midnapore MLA and Trinamool functionary Sujoy Hazra, who was arrested on June 6 following a complaint by a businessman, Sheikh Imran, alleging that Hazra had demanded Rs 10 lakh from him in 2021 over a land deal in Sitanathpur.Sources said police are also probing a separate complaint against Roy for allegedly seeking money from TMC functionaries promising them election tickets.After the police left around 8 am, a visibly irritated Abhishek came out of his home and told newsperson: “They broke open the lock, entered the house and searched every room. You can ask the investigating agencies about the search — whether I have hidden anything inside.”Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose posted a copy of the ‘Nil’ seizure report on X and said, “Seizure report says: NIL. No evidence. No wrongdoing. Nothing. Just political vendetta, intimidation, and mental torture. Operation Lotus is targeting everyone who refuses to surrender to BJP’s diktat. Disgraceful attack on an opposition leader…”Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar claimed Abhishek Banerjee’s PA “must have taken money from someone, and once an FIR is registered, police will obviously swing into action”.For residents of Kalighat’s Patuapara, the day started before dawn as commotion outside the VIP residence woke them up. The owner of a shop across Abhishek’s house said, “I saw lost of cops on the road and realised a raid was on inside Abhishek’s home. After a while, I saw the former CM enter the house. I have been running this shop for over three decades but have never seen such scenes before.”
