Ex-BJP MP Arjun Singh moves Calcutta High Court challenging CID summons

Kolkata, Nov 6 (IANS) Former BJP MP Arjun Singh on Wednesday approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the summons from West Bengal's CID asking him to be present for an inquiry at its office on November 12, just a day before six Assembly constituencies in the state will go to bypolls.

A single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh has admitted the petition and the matter will be taken up on November 11.

In his petition, Singh alleged that he had been deliberately summoned just a day before the bypolls in a case concerning Bhatpara Municipality in the same district in 2020.

Naihati, one of the seven Assembly constituencies under Barrackpore Lok Sabha and a stronghold of Singh, is one of the six constituencies where polling will be held on November 13.

The counting of votes will be held on November 23.

Soon after, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari pointed out some flaws in the notice.

He pointed out that the date of dispatch of the notice by CID was a day before the date of issuing the notice.

"Interestingly, the notice signed on November 5 was delivered on November 4. Maybe the CID of West Bengal has a time machine, which we do not know about," Adhikari said.

Singh claimed: "If a leader is with Trinamool Congress, he is a good boy and once he joins the BJP the same leader becomes a "bad boy" for the administration.

Singh, a long-time Trinamool Congress legislator from Bhatpara Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district joined the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and successfully contested from Barrackpore Lok Sabha that year.

However, in 2022, he rejoined the Trinamool Congress. Before the Lok Sabha polls this year, he again went back to BJP and the latter again nominated him from Barrackpore. However, this time he was defeated by Trinamool Congress' Partha Bhowmik.

--IANS

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