The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday visited the Chetla residence of Kolkata Mayor and Kolkata Port MLA Firhad Hakim to question him in connection with the Signgate scam, which involves the alleged forgery of signatures of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs during the election of the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
Investigation Details
According to sources, investigators recorded Hakim's statement and obtained specimen signatures from him as part of the ongoing probe. The Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by a Deputy Inspector General (DIG)-rank officer, was accompanied by a videographer and a photographer who documented the entire exercise at the mayor's home.
This development came on the same day when three TMC MLAs—Arup Roy, Subhasish Das, and Baharul Islam—appeared before the Bankshall Court and submitted their handwriting samples at the CID's request. The agency had sought court permission to collect these samples for the investigation.
MLAs' Statements
Speaking to reporters outside the court, MLA Arup Roy stated, "We came to verify the signatures. The signature shown to me was not mine. CID officials served me a notice, so I came accordingly and cooperated with them."
Sources indicate that the handwriting samples collected from the three legislators will be sent for forensic examination and compared with documents already under scrutiny. The samples were collected under the supervision of the 19th Judicial Magistrate's Court.
Background of the Case
The case stems from a letter submitted to the assembly secretariat on May 19, which purportedly carried the signatures of around 70 TMC MLAs and named senior party leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition. Allegations later surfaced that several signatures on the document were forged.
The two whistleblowers in this case—Uluberia MLA Ritabrata Banerjee and Entally MLA Sandipan Saha—were expelled from the party. Two days after their expulsion, the duo claimed the support of 58 MLAs to stake claim of the TMC legislative party, where Ritabrata was chosen as the Leader of Opposition and Saha was made one of the four deputies.
The complaint lodged by the two MLAs led the Assembly Secretary to file an FIR at Hare Street police station. Consequently, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari constituted a Special Investigation Team headed by a DIG-rank officer to probe the matter.
Earlier Developments
Earlier, the CID summoned TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with the case. However, Banerjee skipped his appearance before investigators at Bhawani Bhawan on Monday, citing health reasons after he was severely assaulted during a visit to Sonarpur last week. He is understood to have sought two weeks' time before appearing before the CID.
So far, the CID has also questioned and collected statements from several other MLAs, including Madan Mitra, Kunal Ghosh, and Nayana Banerjee, in connection with this case.
