Signing you in

Banerjee arrived in a black sedan at the heavily guarded Shakespeare Sarani police station around 12.17 pm. As news of his arrival spread, several Trinamool workers gathered outside, chanting slogans including “Joy Bangla” and “Abhishek Banerjee Zindabad”. Police personnel kept party workers away, allowing only Banerjee to enter without his security detail.

The case stems from an incident Thursday afternoon when Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) officers and workers, accompanied by Shakespeare Sarani police, arrived at the Camac Street office to dismantle a hoarding, alleging it was illegal. Municipal staff were allegedly stopped from entering, triggering a heated altercation between Trinamool workers and the police.

The situation escalated when Abhishek Banerjee and TMC MP Derek O’Brien arrived at the scene and attempts were made to enter the premises forcibly. Visuals showed Derek lying on the ground to obstruct operations, while Abhishek faced allegations of harassing a KMC officer. Trinamool workers were also accused of physically attacking uniformed police officers and pulling their collars. Banerjee allegedly failed to attempt to restrain the party workers despite events unfolding right in front of him.

The police served the notice at Banerjee’s residence Saturday evening. His personal assistant Sumit Roy has also been summoned for questioning on Wednesday at 12 pm, while a second notice was served to Derek O’Brien on Monday. The police are set to produce 14 people arrested in the case in court Wednesday.

The matter also reached the Calcutta High Court after Abhishek’s counsel brought it to the Acting Chief Justice’s attention, leading to a hearing before Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury’s bench on Friday. However, Justice Basu Chowdhury stated that the plea lacked relevance and refused interim protection, as the signboard had already been removed.

After close to six hours of interrogation, Abhishek Banerjee left the police station around 5.44 pm. While speaking to the media, he said, “The incident involved thousands of police officers dismantling the signboard. Then yesterday, they used the excuse of a fire audit to harass our party workers. If the government had been so vigilant a month ago, many lives could have been saved in the hotel fire. On the day the election results were announced, there was mysteriously a fire at the DM office in Alipore that destroyed the EVM machines; was there no fire audit then?”