Oppn slams CM, Kolkata Police over ‘fabrication of court order’

“The state government is using police to fabricate a court order. The police are misleading the ED by changing a court order. This is being done to put pressure on the ED, which is probing several cases in the state. Several police officers are involved in this. The police and the administration are compromising the judicial system. The central investigation agencies should now take action. If needed we will move the Calcutta High Court, demanding its intervention in the matter,” said BJP MLA Adhikari lashing out at the police for their alleged act at a press conference at Debra in West Midnapore district.

ED officials, in their FIR registered on April 20 with the Delhi Police, have claimed that a court order was tampered with in a bid to make its Joint Director Kapil Raj provide a voice sample without his consent.

The Kolkata Police are yet to comment on the allegation.

In 2021, an audio clip purportedly of ED officials discussing a coal smuggling case against Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee had surfaced, following which Mamata Banerjee’s nephew had filed an FIR against the agency. The matter was taken up by a magistrate’s court in Kolkata. However, the court asked for voice samples of the ED officers reportedly heard in the contentious clip. The Kolkata Police then sent the court order to the ED but allegedly with certain editing.

Although the court had asked for the voice sample, it also mentioned an important aspect — “with his consent”. Kolkata’s Alipore court asked ED officials, especially Joint Director Kapil Raj, to appear before the Kolkata Police and provide voice samples with their consent. Kapil Raj is also supervising the investigations in the coal and cattle smuggling cases in which Abhishek Banerjee is under the scanner.