CID summons BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari for questioning in suicide case

The development comes days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and Trinamool Congress MP, Abhishek Banerjee, was summoned to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Monday

Kolkata: The West Bengal Crime Investigation Department (CID) has summoned Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, to appear before it on Monday in connection with the alleged suicide of his security guard in 2018, officials familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, has been asked to appear before CID on Monday. (PTI)

The development comes days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and Trinamool Congress MP, Abhishek Banerjee, was summoned to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Monday in an alleged money laundering case involving coal smuggling. The Diamond Harbour MP’s wife, Rujira Banerjee, too, was earlier asked to appear before the agency in New Delhi on September 1.

While Adhikari didn’t respond to calls and messages for a comment, a Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson termed the notice “vendetta politics”. Protégé-turned-adversary Adhikari had defeated Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram by a narrow margin of 1,956 votes in the recently-concluded assembly elections.

“When the security guard died, Adhikari was a minister in the TMC government. Back then he was God. Now that he has joined the BJP, and has defeated Mamata Banerjee, he has become a demon. The TMC is not being able to digest the defeat of Mamata Banerjee. This is nothing but vendetta politics,” said Samik Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson.

Earlier in July, a four-member CID delegation visited Purba Medinipur to probe into the death of Adhikari’s security guard who reportedly died by suicide in October 2018. According to the police, the deceased allegedly shot himself with his service revolver.

In July, after the TMC came to power for the third time, the victim’s wife lodged a three-page complaint with the local police in the East Midnapore district demanding a fresh probe into her husband’s death.

“BJP is continuously resorting to vindictive politics. The way, Abhishek Banerjee and a few others are being attacked in the name of investigation, people of West Bengal won’t accept it. It has been proved that such steps are not above vindictive politics,” Partha Chatterjee, state minister and Trinamool Congress’ secretary general had told the media when ED had summoned the CM’s nephew.