The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police on Friday questioned several Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislators over allegations that some signatures on a May 19 letter nominating Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Assembly’s leader of the opposition (LoP) were forged, party leaders said.
The complaint was lodged at Kolkata’s Hare Street police station on behalf of the Assembly secretariat on Wednesday, and the matter was handed over to the CID, officials said.
“The TMC submitted its first letter to the Assembly regarding the LoP issue on May 6, but the Assembly rejected it because it was not sent by the TMC legislative party, which is mandatory. When a second letter signed by TMC MLAs was submitted on May 19, it was found that some of the signatures did not match the Assembly records,” a police officer said, requesting anonymity.
All 80 TMC MLAs were asked to assemble at party chairperson Mamata Banerjee’s residence on May 19. The party did not tell how many people were present.
Of the several TMC MLAs the CID questioned till Friday afternoon, only one — Baharul Islam from South 24 Parganas district’s Canning East seat — said he did not sign the letter. “I could not attend the meeting as I was at home. If I didn’t sign the letter, then who did? I have informed the leadership about this,” Islam said on Friday.
Days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the polls, securing 207 of Bengal’s 294 seats and leaving the TMC with only 80, the party announced on May 10 that 82-year-old Chattopadhyay, a 10-time MLA who won Kolkata’s Ballygunge seat in the April polls, would be the LoP.
Kolkata’s Chowringhee MLA Nayna Bandopadhyay, wife of TMC Lok Sabha member Sudip Bandopadhyay, and Hooghly district’s Dhaniakhali MLA Asima Patra were nominated as deputy leaders of the opposition in the House. Kolkata mayor and Kolkata Port MLA Firhad Hakim was nominated as the TMC chief whip.
A CID team visited Nayna and Sudip Bandopadhyay’s home on Thursday.
“They wanted to see my Aadhaar, PAN and other documents. I told them I was present at the meeting of the TMC legislative party and signed the document nominating Chattopadhyay,” Nayna Bandopadhyay said.
The same claim was made by Birbhum district’s Bolpur MLA Chandranath Sinha after a CID visit to his home on Friday. “It is my signature on the document. I attended the meeting of the MLAs in Kolkata,” Sinha said.
Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose, who assumed office on May 15, did not comment on the issue.
BJP MLA Tapas Roy, who administered the oath to both TMC and his party’s MLAs as the pro-tem speaker before Bose took charge, said, “The West Bengal Legislative Assembly has never witnessed forgeries like this. If an MLA forges the signature of another, then the speaker can take action. Otherwise, the police will act according to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.”
Meanwhile, Chattopadhyay said, “If Baharul says he did not sign the letter, then who did? I was never part of any malpractice. It makes no difference to me if I don’t continue as leader of the opposition.”
We have 80 MLAs. Only 30 signatures are required for this nomination. I wonder why the BJP is so proactive on this,” he added.
Assembly officials said legislators found guilty of forging signatures can be disqualified as Assembly members.
