Kolkata: Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was questioned for six and a half hours on Tuesday by the CID pertaining to alleged inflammatory remarks made by him during the recently concluded assembly elections, including the controversial DJ remark.
Banerjee arrived at Bhawani Bhavan around noon, completed the formalities and went upstairs to meet the interrogators. He was seen walking out around 6.30 in the evening without speaking to the media. It is still unclear whether he has been summoned again in this case by the CID. From Bhawani Bhavan, Abhishek went directly to Trinamool chief and former CM Mamata Banerjee’s residence in Kalighat.
Regarding the probe, CID sources stated that the complaint specifically referred to speeches delivered at political rallies in Maheshtala, Arambag, Haringhata and Nandigram. “Since he had made the controversial statements repeatedly, we want to probe if there was a larger conspiracy to create trouble in the state. Our questions to Banerjee were to try and investigate the greater conspiracy angle and involvement of others,” claimed a CID source.
Banerjee has been questioned for the past three days continuously beginning last Sunday when he appeared before the CID in the signgate case. On Monday, he was questioned by the ED for around 11 hours in the cash-for-job probe. The CID had earlier questioned him last Thursday on the signgate case for another five and a half hours. The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday claimed that Banerjee has now cooperated — totaling over 31 hours — “to the best of his abilities”.
The case was registered on May 15 at the Cyber Crime PS under the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, following a complaint filed by one activist identified as Rajib Sarkar at Baguiati PS. According to police, the complaint was submitted on May 5, a day after election results were declared, and was processed according to due procedure before the FIR was formally lodged. Subsequently, the Bidhannagar cyber cell took up initial investigation.
Referring to the playing of DJs, Banerjee had said, “The DJ will definitely play, and it will play so loudly that your ears will ring.”
The case was taken over by the CID last week and sleuths had served a notice to Banerjee last Friday — after waiting at his residence for close to two hours even as Banerjee was busy with a party meeting — to join this investigation on Tuesday.
Banerjee had earlier questioned why he is being investigated for making a comment on “playing the DJ” and not the Union home minister Amit Shah who threatened to “turn TMC supporters upside down and hang them”.
“When I made that statement, elections were already underway. At that time, the EC was in charge of law and order. Then why was no FIR filed against me at that time? Now that the govt has changed, I will be tagged in several cases…The Union home minister had said Trinamool supporters would be hung upside down. The EC took no action against him. If a case can be filed against me for saying that DJ will be played, then why not against the home minister? Why is the CID after my speech, while no case is filed against outsiders?” Banerjee had asked.
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