High Court says 'No' to Abhishek's urgent hearing plea in fake signature case

Abhishek Banerjee has not received immediate relief in the alleged signature forgery case after the Calcutta High Court declined a plea seeking an urgent hearing of his petition challenging a CID notice. Justice Chaitali Chatterjee Das rejected the request for expedited consideration of the matter. Banerjee had approached the court seeking protection from arrest and challenging the notice issued by investigators.

The dispute originated after the Assembly election results, when a meeting of Trinamool Congress MLAs was held at Kalighat on May 6 under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. During the meeting, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay was proposed as the Leader of the Opposition and those present reportedly expressed support. However, the formal proposal required to be submitted to the Assembly was not filed at that stage.

After newly elected MLAs took their oath on May 13 and 14, they signed official legislative documents. The Assembly Secretary later sought a formal proposal naming the Leader of the Opposition. A second meeting was held on May 19 at Kalighat, where signatures of attending MLAs were collected and the names of absentees were recorded. Subsequently, a document containing the signatures of 70 MLAs supporting the party’s proposed Leader of the Opposition was submitted to the Assembly.

The controversy emerged when signatures appearing on the two sets of documents allegedly did not match. The Assembly Secretary reportedly suspected forgery and lodged an FIR, following which the investigation was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department. During the course of the investigation, Banerjee’s name surfaced and investigators directed him to appear for questioning at Bhawani Bhavan.

Banerjee did not appear before investigators, citing health reasons, and sought 15 days’ time through written communication. Following his absence, the CID issued another notice to him. Separately, he has also reportedly received a notice from the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a recruitment corruption case. His petition challenging the CID notice was filed before the High Court last week, along with a request for urgent hearing and protection from arrest.