Bodyguard death probe: Will Suvendu Adhikari appear before Bengal CID today?

Adhikari's party, the BJP, has termed the CID's notice as ‘vendetta politics.’

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, is on Monday scheduled to apper before the West Bengal Crime Investigation Department (CID) after being summoned by it for questioning in connection with the death of his personal security guard in 2018.

Suvendu Adhikari (File Photo)

Summoning the BJP’s Nandigram MLA, the agency had asked him to appear at its office in Kolkata. While it is not yet known whether he will, in fact, appear before the CID or not, his party has termed the notice as “vendetta politics.”

The case pertains to the death of Subhabrata Chakraborty, Adhikari’s personal security guard, who allegedly died by suicide on October 13, 2018. Chakraborty, a state armed police personnel, was part of the BJP leader’s security detail from the time the latter became a parliamentarian. At the time of Chakraborty’s death, Adhikari was a leader of the Mamata Banerjee-led ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and was serving as the transport minister in her cabinet. However, in December last year, he joined the BJP and defeated his former boss from Nandigram in the assembly elections earlier this year though the TMC won the polls comprehensively, coming to power for a third straight term.

On July 12, the CID constituted a four-member team to probe Chakraborty’s death after a complaint was filed by his wife seeking fresh inquiry into her husband’s demise. On July 22, Adhikari filed a petition in the Calcutta high court seeking transfer of all criminal cases registered against him to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Also summoned for questioning are Adhikari’s driver Sambhu Maity and close associate Sanjeev Shukla. Their questioning, however, is scheduled for Tuesday.