Kolkata, June 11 (IANS) The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police on Friday was handed over the charge of the probe in another case against Trinamool Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee, where he had been accused of inciting violence and threatening Union Home Minister Amit Shah before the recently concluded assembly polls in the state.

Last month, an FIR was registered against Abhishek Banerjee, also the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, at the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police Station under the Bidhannagar City Police. Until now, the cops of the said cybercrime police station had been conducting the probe into the matter.

However, confirmed a senior official of the state police, on Friday the charge of the same probe was handed over to the CID, which had already issued three summonses for interrogation to Abhishek Banerjee in relation to the ongoing CID probe in the case of mismatches in the signatures of some Trinamool legislators on a crucial resolution pertaining to appointments for certain slots in the West Bengal assembly reserved for the opposition bench.

Although Abhishek Banerjee approached the Calcutta High Court seeking the scrapping of the FIR in the case against him, his plea was rejected on May 21 by a single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya, who also made strong observations about comments made by Banerjee at a pre-election public rally. Based on those comments, a complaint was first filed, and subsequently an FIR was registered.

While questioning how the general secretary of a political party and three-time MP could make such an inciting statement at a public meeting, especially in a state with records of massive post-poll violence, Justice Bhattacharya observed that had the results of the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly polls been otherwise on May 4, there could have been a serious deterioration in law-and-order problems in the state.

However, Justice Bhattacharya granted him interim protection from any coercive police actions, including arrest, till July 31 under strict conditions, the prime of which was a ban on his foreign travel without prior permission of the court.

–IANS

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