Officers of Bengal Police’s CID on Saturday served a notice on Trinamool Congress’s No. 2 leader, Abhishek Banerjee, asking him to appear for questioning at its headquarters on Monday in connection with a probe into alleged signature forgery.

This is the first time since the Assembly election results that Abhishek, Trinamool’s national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP, has been summoned by an investigating agency. He has been asked to appear at Bhabani Bhawan by noon.

Addressing reporters, the Trinamool leader said he had “nothing to hide” and would consult his lawyers after going through the notice.

“I have faced the ED and the CBI on at least a dozen occasions and have cooperated with them. They have not been able to deter me in the past, and they won’t succeed now,” Abhishek said.

The state CID is investigating allegations that the signatures of several Trinamool MLAs were forged on an official document submitted to the Assembly, nominating Ballygunge MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the state’s Leader of the Opposition.

The Assembly secretariat filed a complaint with Hare Street police station, following which an FIR was registered. The CID subsequently took over the investigation.

Over the past few days, CID teams have visited several Trinamool MLAs to verify their signatures against those on the document under scrutiny.

On Saturday, a five-member CID team reached “Shantiniketan”, Abhishek’s residence on Harish Mukherjee Road.

The officers waited for nearly an hour outside the main gate before a man emerged and told them that neither the leader nor his wife and children were at home. “I have no information about where the leader is. But he is not here. His wife and children are also not in this house now,” said Sarojit Dey, who identified himself as a member of the household staff.

The officers said they had come to serve a notice and asked whether the property was the residence of the Trinamool MP. While confirming that it was, Dey added that the leader also stayed elsewhere.

At the time, Abhishek was in Beleghata meeting family members of Biswajit Pattanaik, a Trinamool worker who was killed on the night of May 4, hours after the Assembly election results were declared. He was accompanied by Trinamool’s Beleghata MLA Kunal Ghosh.

After being informed that CID officers were waiting outside his Harish Mukherjee Road residence, Abhishek asked them to come to his Kalighat Road house and left Beleghata.

Around 2.30pm, about 10 minutes after Abhishek arrived at the Kalighat residence, the CID team reached the premises. The officers informed security personnel that they wanted to meet him.

A few minutes later, the officers were told that they could hand over the documents to Abhishek’s personal assistant. The CID team, however, insisted on serving the notice directly to the Trinamool leader.

In a few minutes, Abhishek came out and received the notice. The CID team was accompanied by a videographer who recorded the proceedings.

“They don’t know where I live, even after seven years. But anyway, they are employees doing their job. I am not a person to leave the ground,” Abhishek said.

Later in the day, a separate CID team visited Kunal Ghosh at his Sukeas Street residence in north Calcutta in connection with the same probe.

“They came on Thursday when I wasn’t around. They came again today, and I have assured them of full cooperation. They were extremely courteous,” Ghosh said.

Sources in the CID said investigators wanted to ascertain from Abhishek whether Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay had been chosen by the party as Leader of the Opposition and whether a letter naming other office-bearers had been submitted to the Assembly carrying the signatures of MLAs who were not present at the time.

“We will not speak a word about this right now,” a senior CID officer said.

A section of Kolkata Police officers said that if it is established that some of the MLAs’ signatures were forged, their status as elected members of the Assembly could be revoked under provisions of the Representation of the People Act.