The state CID summoned Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool's national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP, to appear at Bhabani Bhawan, the CID headquarters, on Monday at 12 noon.
After more than an hour's wait, a team of five CID officers served the notice at the MP's Kalighat Road residence. The CID team had earlier in the afternoon reached Abhishek's Harish Mukherjee Road residence.
"I have received the notice. I am yet to read it," Abhishek told the media outside his Kalighat road residence. "I will decide on the next step after reading the notice."
The state CID is probing a case of alleged forged signatures in a letter submitted to Assembly Speaker Rathindranath Basu announcing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.
Abhishek said the Suvendu Adhikari-led government in Bengal was specifically targeting him for his opposition to the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
"To the CBI, ED and other agencies, Bengal Police and Kolkata Police have now been added," he said. "One should remember no chief minister be it from the Congress, CPM or even Mamata Banerjee were caught on camera accepting cash. I have never surrendered to the BJP and I shall never do so."
On Saturday afternoon, when the CID team reached Harish Mukherjee Road, Abhishek was with Trinamool's Beliaghata MLA Kunal Ghosh, meeting the family members of party worker Biswajeet Pattanayak, who was killed on the night of May 4 after the Assembly poll results were declared.
The signatories included 70 of the 80 Trinamool MLAs, as well as Abhishek. Questions were raised about why Abhishek, who is not a member of the Legislative Assembly, was among the signatories.
CID officers have already spoken to Chowringhee MLA Nayana Bandyopadhyay and Canning East MLA Baharul Islam.
Islam had claimed that he was not present at the meeting held at Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee's residence on Harish Chatterjee Street. The CID team also collected signature specimens from the MLAs.
On May 31, Mamata Banerjee has called another meeting of legislators to decide afresh on the Leader of the Opposition.
Since the Assembly election results were declared and Trinamool suffered a rout after ruling Bengal for 15 years, Abhishek has maintained a low profile.
Several party MPs, MLAs and leaders have voiced reservations about the party's functioning over the past 15 years, and a section of them blamed Abhishek for the poll debacle.
"Some people have commented within the party forum, others have expressed their views in public. I welcome all criticism," he said.
