Kolkata, June 30: Abhishek Banerjee, a Member of Parliament from the Trinamool Congress, has filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court challenging the CID’s decision to collect his voice sample in the ‘DJ comments’ case. The timeline for the hearing of this petition remains uncertain.
On Monday, the High Court did not hear Banerjee’s petition against the CID’s move to collect his voice sample. It is still unclear whether the hearing will take place on Tuesday.
According to a lower court order, Banerjee is required to appear at the Bidhannagar Court on Tuesday to record his voice sample. If the High Court does not hear the case before the scheduled time, the petition may lose its relevance.
The CID seeks to examine Banerjee’s voice sample in connection with comments he made about a DJ during the assembly election campaign. The Trinamool MP has approached the High Court against this action. Last Thursday, Justice Kaushik Chanda granted permission to file the case.
The hearing was set for Monday, but Justice Chanda’s court did not convene. Banerjee’s lawyers attempted to have the case heard in another court.
When the case was finally heard at 5 PM on Monday before Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, the state lawyer stated that the case documents had only recently been provided. Therefore, he requested that the hearing be postponed to another day. Justice Ghosh instructed the state lawyer to gather the necessary information and return for the discussion. He indicated that the case would be relisted for a hearing on Tuesday.
Banerjee’s lawyer, Ayan Bhattacharya, urged the court to clearly communicate the status of the Tuesday hearing to the public. He emphasized that if necessary, the court should allow a reminder to be issued in the morning, as his client was summoned to provide the sample that day. Failure to appear could result in strict action from the police.
Justice Ghosh confirmed that the case is scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday but could not guarantee how the other bench would handle it. Banerjee’s lawyer requested at least a one-day protection order if the hearing could not proceed.
The judge did not respond to this request. It remains to be seen whether the hearing will occur on Tuesday.
Banerjee is accused of making controversial comments regarding DJ music after the election results were announced during the assembly campaign. A case has been filed against him under cybercrime laws in Bidhannagar, alleging that his comments about the DJ were inflammatory.
The Bidhannagar Court ordered that Banerjee’s voice sample be taken on June 30 in the presence of a magistrate and forensic experts. Recently, the CID visited Banerjee’s residence in Kalighat to serve notice regarding the case. Last week, the CID approached the Bidhannagar Court to obtain Banerjee’s voice sample, and the judge approved this request.
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