Police raid Abhishek Banerjee’s house at 2am to trace aide in land fraud case

IN a predawn bust on sabbatum, a team up of due west Midnapore police force searched Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s house in Kolkata’s Kalighat area in connection with a land fraud case in which his personal assistant Sumit Roy is an accused.“A team from Salboni police station searched Abhishek Banerjee’s house in the early morning on Saturday. Police went there looking for an accused. The search lasted for a little more than an hour. The accused wasn’t found. No items were seized,” said a senior official of West Midnapore police.Former chief minister Mamata Banerjee rushed to Abhishek’s residence soon after being alerted, people familiar with the matter said.“They broke open the locks to search the house. I am not the investigating agency. The search was conducted by the agency. So, question them. Not me,” Abhishek said.This comes at a time when he had been summoned in three different cases by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the state police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID). A Tripura court also issued him summons to appear before the Tripura police on June 22.“The team from Salboni reached Kolkata late on Friday night while looking for Roy. His mobile tower location was being tracked. In the early hours on Saturday the mobile tower location revealed that he was in Kalighat. A police team reached the location,” said an officer of Salboni police station.Also Read:Abhishek Banerjee loses cool after late-night search over questions about assistant ‘hiding’ at his home | WatchThe team from Salboni police contacted their counterparts in Kalighat police station and a large contingent of police, including women police personnel, and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel reached his house at 121 Kalighat Road around 2am.“We asked those present on the premises to open the door or inform Abhishek Banerjee. They did neither. After a standoff for around four hours, personnel from the Kolkata Police’s disaster management group were called in to break open the locks,” officer added.The police team entered Abhishek’s residence around 6am, while a large contingent of CAPF was stationed outside.“Mamata Banerjee arrived soon after. A lawyer also arrived after her. The search started around 6.30am and went on till 7.40am. Both Mamata and Abhishek were present at the time. Mamata wanted to know what was the case and what was the search operation about,” officer said.On Thursday the CID questioned Abhishek for around six hours in connection with the signature forgery case. On Friday a CID team reached his house to serve him summons in a case related to giving inciting speeches before the elections.“Political vendetta gets from bad to worse,” the TMC wrote on X.The developments come at a time when the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is battling turmoil after the election defeat with a large section of rebel MLAs recognised as “opposition” in the assembly and the rift reaching its parliamentary party.While three MPs have resigned from Rajya Sabha, around 19 MPs have decided to approach the Lok Sabha speaker, claiming to be “real TMC”. They have also decided to seek a separate seating arrangement.“So @KolkataPolice arrives at 3am to @abhishekaitc‘s home, breaks open door & searches for 90 mins to find nothing. Zero seizure, 100pc vendetta. BJP try everything. Intimidation & money will not make you win 2029,” Mahua Moitra, TMC MP, wrote on X.“Mamata and Abhishek are past now. Those people have given them a befitting reply in the elections. And now they have to face the Constitution for what they have done. They can’t escape,” Locket Chatterjee, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP said.