Kolkata, July 8 (IANS) Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday again avoided appearing at the Bidhannagar Court in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal to give his voice samples in connection with a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe into an alleged hate speech case linked to the recent Assembly elections.

Banerjee, as directed by the same court, was supposed to appear at the court by 12 noon on Wednesday to give his voice samples in the presence of the judicial magistrate of the court and forensic experts.

Accordingly, a team of CID officials was present at the court by 12 noon. However, they kept on waiting for Abhishek, but he did not appear at the court to give his voice samples.

Thereafter, the public prosecutor Bivas Chattopadhyay told the court that since this is the second time the Trinamool Congress general secretary had skipped appearance at the court to give his voice samples, it was evident that he was trying to disrupt and delay the investigation process in the matter.

Later, the public prosecutor submitted a written statement to the court accusing Abhishek of deliberately trying to delay the investigation process in the hate speech case, where the latter had been accused of making violence-inciting statements and even threatening Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

In the written statement, the public prosecutor also made an appeal that since Abhishek’s subsequent absences from appearing at the court to give his voice samples were deliberate violations of the court order, it was time for strong legal action against him.

In fact, on Tuesday, Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Sougata Bhattacharya raised questions on why the TMC leader was unwilling to cooperate with the investigation despite already enjoying interim protection from coercive police action, including arrest, granted by the Calcutta High Court till July 31.

Seeking relief from the scheduled appearance at Bidhannagar Court to give his voice samples, Banerjee’s counsel had moved Justice Bhattacharya’s bench on Tuesday for an urgent hearing on a petition challenging the district court’s order directing him to provide voice samples.

However, Justice Bhattacharya declined to grant an urgent hearing and observed that since Banerjee was protected from any coercive action, he should cooperate with the investigators and provide his voice samples without further delay.

–IANS

src/uk