KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress-ruled Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has issued notices to Abhishek Banerjee, party’s all India general secretary and MP from Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha (LS) constituency in West Bengal asking him to submit plans of around 21 landed properties to the KMC soon, according to highly-placed sources at the civic body.
Sources requesting anonymity said that the KMC’s building department has issued the notices seeking to verify whether the construction works come up on these land match with building plans approved by the corporation concerned.
The MP has also been asked to produce the necessary documents in connection with building plans and construction works of these properties allegedly linked to a company named ‘Leaps and Bounds’, sources said.
The KMC authorities wanted to know whether these properties are legal.
The civic body headed by the Trinamool Congress MLA Firhad Hakim as its mayor served notices on the properties owned by Abhishek or linked to him, asking him or his representatives to appear for a hearing with approved building plans, civic body sources said.
The properties include 188A Harish Mukherjee Road, Abhishek’s residence, and an adjacent building on Kalighat Road.
The notices were issued 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. An official said the notices followed an internal inquiry by the KMC that found deviations from sanctioned building plans.
“We served notices on properties owned by Abhishek Banerjee or having links with him. Some notices were pasted on the facades of the buildings, while others were handed over to people present there. The owners have been asked to appear before the special officer (building) at the KMC headquarters. They can also send their representatives,” an official of the KMC said.
Following an instruction of the Suvendu Adhiokari-led first-ever BJP government in West Bengal, the KMC has prepared a list of properties belonging to Abhishek Banerjee individually or jointly with other partners in the KMC area.
Neither Abhishek nor his secretary Sumit Roy responded to the WhatsApp messages sent to them by TNIE on Monday seeking their reactions on the matter.
The notices were served on Monday evening, around the same time Suvendu speaking at BJP’s victory celebration rally on Camac Street where Abhishek’s office is located, said he had directed senior government officials to obtain property details of four Trinamool leaders, including the Diamond Harbour MP and number two after Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.
“I had asked the secretary of the municipal affairs department and the commissioner of the KMC (to obtain property details) of four persons,” Suvendu said at the rally before naming them.
The first one is Beleghata’s Raju Naskar, who has 18 properties recorded in his name. Second is Kasba’s Sona Pappu, who has 24 properties. Third is ‘Bhatija’ (nephew) Abhishek Banerjee. There are 14 properties registered in the name of the Leaps and Bounds company, four in his own name and six in the name of his father, according to the CM Suvendu.
The fourth is the son of Javed Khan, Trinamool Congress’ three-time MLA from Kasba constituency, who has 90 properties, Suvendu claimed.
Suvendu had made similar allegations against Abhishek on Saturday when he was addressing a rally for re-election in Falta constituency under the Diamond Harbour LS seat sharpening attacks on Mamata and her nephew.
He had also threatened to initiate inquiries against the former CM on the brutal rape and murder of a woman doctor at R G Kar Medical College Hospital and Abhishek’s alleged disproportionate properties.
He alleged that Mamata during her regime had used three IPS officers to supress facts and tamper evidences related to the incident.