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CID summons Suvendu Adhikari for questioning over alleged suicide of bodyguard
Interestingly, the Enforcement Directorate has also summoned West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee to Delhi for questioning in connection with the multi-crore coal smuggling case on the same day.
The West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has asked Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari to appear before it on Monday for questioning in connection with the alleged suicide of his security guard in 2018, officials said.
Interestingly, the Enforcement Directorate has also summoned West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee to Delhi for questioning in connection with the multi-crore coal smuggling case on the same day.
Even though Adhikari didn’t respond to calls and messages, a BJP spokesperson said that it was vendetta politics as Adhikari had defeated Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram in the recently held 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.
In July the CID had initiated a fresh probe into the death of Adhikari’s security guard who reportedly died by suicide in 2018.
According to the police, the victim, Suvabrata Chakraborty, allegedly shot himself with his service revolver in October 2018. Chakraborty was the former security guard of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who was then transport minister in the Mamata Banerjee administration. The guard died two days later.
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 East Midnapore district demanding a fresh probe into her husband’s death.
Adhikari had sided with the BJP in December 2020 just ahead of the state assembly elections. Though the TMC returned to power with a thumping majority, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who contested from Nandigram in East Midnapore district, was defeated by Adhikari, her protégé-turned-adversary. Adhikari is now the leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly.
“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.
