West Bengal CID reaches Mamata Banerjee’s residence over forgery allegations

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police on Tuesday (June 9, 2026) reached the residence of former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, at 30B, Harish Chatterjee Street, in connection with the allegations of forgery of signatures of party MLAs. The CID officials wanted to search the residence of the Trinamool Congress chairperson.

The CID officials said that since the address is referred to as the party office of Trinamool Congress, they want to search the premises. After several minutes of standoff with party officials, the CID team entered the premises.

Former Trinamool Congress MP Subhasish Chakraborty said he cannot allow CID officials as both Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee are not present in the house. He urged the officials to come back a day or two later when either of them would be present on the premises. However, CID officials countered and said that Mr. Chakraborty was “obstructing the investigation”.

A letter nominating Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition was submitted to the Speaker of West Bengal Assembly on May 20, but MLAs Ritabarta Banerjee and Sandipan Saha alleged that their signatures were forged and ended up being expelled from the party. An FIR has been registered on the basis of the complaint at Kolkata’s Hare Street Police Station. The case was later handed over to the CID. The State agency had issued several summons to party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who had signed the said letter. However, he did not appear in person citing health issues and sought time for 15 days.