Kolkata, June 3 (IANS) Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, on Wednesday approached a single-judge vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court challenging the summons from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police for interrogation in the signature mismatch case. 

The case involves a mismatch in the signatures of some of the party's MLAs on a resolution nominating party MLAs to four crucial slots in the Assembly, which are reserved for the opposition bench in the House.

The single-judge bench of Justice Apurba Sinha Roy has admitted his petition seeking protection from coercive police action, including arrest in the case. The matter will come up for hearing on Friday.

Initially, Abhishek Banerjee was summoned at the CID office on June 1. However, instead of appearing on that day, he sought 15 days to appear on the pretext of his physical condition after being assaulted by the public at Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on the afternoon of May 30.

However, in the evening of June 1, the CID sleuths served him a second notice asking him to appear at the CID office on June 8.

On June 8, Abhishek Banerjee and his aunt, the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, are scheduled to be in New Delhi to attend a meeting of the opposition, INDIA bloc.

A few days ago, Abhishek Banerjee had sent a letter to the office of the new Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly, Rathindra Bose, naming Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition, Nayna Bandopadhyay and Asima Patra as the two deputy leaders of the opposition and Firhad Hakim as the Chief Whip of Trinamool Congress’ legislative party in the state Assembly.

The Speaker, however, insisted that the resolution, carrying the signatures of the Trinamool Congress legislators and endorsing the four names, should be submitted along with the letter from Abhishek Banerjee. Thereafter, a resolution carrying the signatures of the Trinamool Congress legislators was submitted to the office of the Speaker.

However, things started taking a dramatic turn after two Trinamool Congress legislators, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, pointed out to the office of the Speaker about the mismatches in the signatures of some party legislators.

Soon after that, the Assembly secretariat handed over the charge of the investigation to the CID and the latter summoned Abhishek Banerjee for interrogation.

--IANS