The Delhi Police on Monday served a notice on former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at her Kolkata residence, seeking to question her as a witness in a criminal case registered in the national capital in April 2013, news agency IANS reported.

Source: IANS

A team of Delhi Police personnel, accompanied by personnel from the local Kalighat Police Station, arrived at Banerjee's residence at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street in South Kolkata to deliver the notice, Kolkata Police said in a statement carried by news agency ANI. The document, delivered in a white envelope, was received by Subhasish Chakraborty on her behalf.

Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer

The notice has been issued under Section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which empowers police to call a person as a witness for questioning. Banerjee has been asked to travel to New Delhi at her convenience to meet the investigating officers, sources aware of the development told IANS. She is not an accused in the case, and the summons carries no custodial implication.

A case from April 2013

The case was registered at Parliament Street Police Station in New Delhi on April 9, 2013, after activists of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the CPI(M), staged a protest outside Banga Bhavan — West Bengal's official guest house in the capital — following the death of SFI activist Sudipta Gupta in Kolkata earlier that year.

During the demonstration, the then West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra was reportedly heckled and assaulted by protesters. The protest was led by the then SFI general secretary Ritabrata Banerjee, who is currently the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. According to Kolkata Police, the case was registered under Indian Penal Code sections 186 (obstructing a public servant), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant), 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 34 (common intention).

Thirteen years after the incident, investigators have issued the summons noting that Banerjee was present in New Delhi alongside Mitra when the alleged assault occurred, making her a potential witness to the events of that day, IANS reported. News agency PTI, citing sources, also reported that the notice seeks to record her statement as part of the ongoing investigation.

Source: PTI via eDailyGraph