The high court on Monday directed the CID to preserve CCTV footage and related records of its June 13 raid at Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee’s residence, where officers had searched for his close aide, Sumit Roy.
The order was preceded by a prayer by Abhishek challenging the legality of the raid at odd hours.
The judge fixed the matter for hearing after four weeks.
The judge asked additional advocate-general Rajdeep Majumdar about the urgency behind the midnight raid.
“What was the urgency of the CID to raid Abhishek Banerjee’s house at midnight?” the judge reportedly asked the lawyer.
Majumdar said the raid was linked to a land-grabbing case registered at Salboni police station and that investigators were searching for the prime accused, Sumit Roy.
Acting on the tower location of a mobile phone, the CID conducted the raid. When the judge again asked, “Why at midnight?”, Majumdar replied that investigators feared the accused might flee by morning.
Roy, the accused in the case, was Abhishek’s personal assistant.
Plea rejected again
The high court on Monday again refused Abhishek’s plea for an early hearing of his petition seeking permission to travel abroad for eye treatment.
Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya said the petition would be heard in its normal course as there was no urgency. Last week, too, the judge had rejected a similar request by Banerjee’s counsel, Ayan Bhattacharyya.