Kolkata, May 19 Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) authorities, which still has the current and four-time Trinamool Congress legislator and former member in the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Cabinet, Firhad Hakim as its Mayor, has started a probe against a number of properties reportedly owned or co-owned by Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the party's Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee.
The KMC have served notices under Section 400(1) of the KMC Act 1980, which allows owners of allegedly illegal constructions an opportunity to appear before civic authorities and present their case, to 17 properties owned or co-owned by Abhishek Banerjee in areas within the KMC's jurisdiction.
Copies of the notices have been pasted on the walls of such properties. Two residences of the Diamond Harbour MP, one at 188A Harish Mukherjee Road and the other at nearby 121 Kalighat Road, are under the KMC scanner.
In case of the property at Harish Mukherjee Road, a notice had been served to a corporate entity Leaps & Bounds Private Limited, reportedly owned by the Banerjee-family. In case of the property at Kalighat Road, the notice had been served to Abhishek Banerjee’s mother Lata Banerjee.
Both these properties are in Kolkata and quite close to the previous Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee’s residence at Kalighat. At the time the report was filed there was a no reaction from anyone in the Trinamool Congress about the notices being served.
Ever since the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime came to power, the Opposition parties, first CPI(M) and then Congress and finally the BJP had been vocal about a large number of properties being registered in the names of different Banerjee-family members.
However, at that point in time, Mamata Banerjee had rubbished such allegations as a mud-slinging exercise by the Opposition.
Incidentally, the KMC authorities served these notices a couple of days after the current Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, while addressing a gathering at Falat in South 24 Parganas district last week, hinted at enquiries about such properties linked to one corporate entity reportedly owned by Abhishek Banerjee.
However, while hinting at this, the Chief Minister fell short of directly naming Banerjee and instead addressed him as “Mr Nephew”.
In the meeting, Adhikari also said that he had brought a list of 24 properties owned by a company of “Mr Nephew” from the KMC.
Even on Monday, the Chief Minister reminded that the new Cabinet led by him is determined to take strong legal action against every person who was involved in corruption and looting public money during the previous Trinamool Congress regime.
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