Kolkata: Troubles escalated for the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday after a CID team entered its headquarters-cum-residence of party chief Mamata Banerjee in Kalighat as part of its probe into the alleged forging of TMC MLAs' signatures.
The controversy, which has already triggered a split in the party, drew a furious response from the Mamata camp, which accused investigating agencies of carrying out a politically motivated operation.
Officials of the state investigating agency, accompanied by personnel from Kalighat police station and a large contingent of women police personnel, reached TMC's central office at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street in the late afternoon. Another CID team simultaneously visited the office of TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Camac Street.
Security personnel at Kalighat complex initially denied the CID team entry in the absence of Abhishek Banerjee, who is currently in New Delhi along with Mamata. The situation escalated later when CID officials arrived with additional police personnel and entered the premises despite what they described as "mild resistance" from security staff attached to Kolkata Police.
The action came days after the CID issued notices seeking information related to the alleged forging of signatures of TMC legislators on a proposal submitted to the Assembly Speaker for recognition of the Leader of Opposition.
As per CID officials, the search was prompted by Abhishek's reply to an earlier notice stating that the signatures had been collected at the office on Harish Chatterjee Street. In a post on X, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien alleged that the action was deliberately timed to coincide with Mamata's meeting with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. "First loot votes, now loot files of a political rival. Democracy?" he wrote.
