Kolkata, June 11 (IANS) Nearly six hours after Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee appeared at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police on Thursday evening to face questioning in connection with the legislators’ signature mismatch case, the interrogation was still underway.

As per the order of a single-judge vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court earlier in the day, Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was directed to appear at the CID headquarters by 6 p.m. on Thursday and face questioning in the matter.

Following the order, Abhishek Banerjee hurriedly flew back to Kolkata from New Delhi and appeared at the CID headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan in south Kolkata at around 5.55 p.m., five minutes before the deadline fixed by the Calcutta High Court.

Earlier in the day, while directing Abhishek Banerjee to appear before CID investigators by 6 p.m. on Thursday, the single-judge vacation bench also observed that since he had already dodged summons in the matter on three occasions, any repeat of such action would not be tolerated.

When the order was delivered, Abhishek Banerjee was in New Delhi. Following the court’s direction, he hurriedly returned to Kolkata from the national capital.

After arriving at Kolkata airport at around 4 p.m., he first went to his residence on Kalighat Road and from there proceeded to the CID headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan in south Kolkata, which is around a kilometre from his residence.

However, there is no possibility of his arrest in the case for now, as the single-judge vacation bench earlier in the day granted him interim protection from coercive police action, including arrest, in the matter for the next 21 days.

The bench also directed Abhishek Banerjee to fully cooperate with the CID investigators in the matter. It further observed that, if necessary, CID officials would be free to conduct raid and search operations as part of the investigation.

–IANS

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