Signgate: CID reaches Firhad’s Chetla home to record statement

Kolkata: The CID on Thursday reached KMC Mayor Firhad Hakim’s Chetla home to question him in connection with the Signgate scam, the alleged forgery of Trinamool MLAs’ signatures during the process of electing the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly.

Sources said investigators recorded Hakim’s statement and obtained specimen signatures from him, who is also the Kolkata Port MLA, as part of the ongoing probe. The Special Investigation Team, led by a DIG, was accompanied by a videographer and another photographer, who documented the entire exercise.

The development came on a day when three Trinamool MLAs — Arup Roy, Subhasish Das and Baharul Islam — appeared before the Bankshall Court and submitted handwriting samples at the request of the CID. The agency had sought permission from the court to collect the samples as part of its investigation.

Speaking outside the court, Roy said: “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,” he said.

According to sources, 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.

The case relates to a letter submitted to the assembly secretariat on May 19, purportedly carrying the signatures of around 70 Trinamool MLAs and naming 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 later, the duo claimed support of 58 MLAs to stake claim of the Trinamool legislative party where Ritabrata was chosen as the Leader of Opposition and Saha was made one of the four deputies.

The complaint by the two MLAs led the Assembly Secretary to lodge an FIR at Hare Street police station, following which a Special Investigation Team headed by a DIG-rank officer was constituted by CM Suvendu Adhikari to probe the matter.

Earlier, CID summoned Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with the case. Banerjee, however, 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.

So far, CID has also questioned and collected statements from several other MLAs like Madan Mitra, Kunal Ghosh and Nayana Banerjee in connection with this case.