As Bengal CID searches TMC office, a look at how the signature forgery case has played out

Sources said CID officers were initially prevented from entering the premises and had to wait outside for nearly an hour. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)

Written by: Express News Service

3 min readNew DelhiJun 9, 2026 06:42 PM IST

First published on: Jun 9, 2026 at 06:42 PM IST

The West Bengal CID Tuesday conducted searches at the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC)’s central party office in Kolkata’s Kalighat and at the office of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Camac Street as part of its investigation into the alleged Assembly signature forgery case

The searches come a day after the CID summoned Abhishek as part of its probe and amid a rebellion by party MPs and MLAs.

The controversy, which has exposed deep fissures within the TMC following its defeat in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections, centres on a letter submitted to the Assembly Secretariat on May 19 endorsing MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition (LoP).

Questions over the authenticity of signatures appended to the document first surfaced on May 25, when several legislators alleged that their names had been included without their consent. The allegations gained traction two days later after TMC MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha formally complained to Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee, claiming their signatures on the LoP endorsement letter had been forged.

Following the complaint, the matter was referred to the police and subsequently handed over to the CID, which launched a formal investigation into the alleged forgery.

What initially appeared to be a procedural dispute soon snowballed into a full-blown political crisis for the TMC. On May 31, party supremo Mamata Banerjee convened a meeting of the party’s 82 newly elected MLAs at her Kalighat residence in an apparent attempt to quell growing dissent. However, attendance at the meeting was significantly below expectations, with only around 40 legislators reportedly turning up, fuelling speculation about widening discontent within the ranks.

The standoff intensified further in the following days. On June 1 and June 2, the TMC expelled Ritabrata and Saha from the party, accusing them of anti-party activities and indiscipline. The rebel legislators, however, hit back, alleging that the leadership was attempting to suppress legitimate concerns and evade accountability over the forgery allegations.

By June 3, the controversy had acquired a wider dimension, with members of the rebel camp claiming that more than 50 signatures on the LoP endorsement document were forged. The allegations significantly raised the stakes for the party leadership.

On Monday, the CID took a major step in its investigation by entering the TMC’s headquarters at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street in Kolkata’s Kalighat area to collect documents and records related to the case. Investigators are understood to be examining the process through which the endorsement letter was prepared and submitted to the Assembly Secretariat.