NEW DELHI — Delhi Police investigators arrived in Kolkata on Monday to serve a fresh notice to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, seeking her formal deposition as a victim in an eleven-year-old street assault case.
She is not an accused. Investigators from the Parliament Street police station emphasized that the notice treats Banerjee strictly as an aggrieved complainant following violent clashes during her April 2013 official visit to the national capital. Officers offered Banerjee the discretion to pick the location and time for the deposition.
The altercation erupted outside the erstwhile Planning Commission headquarters at Yojana Bhawan in central Delhi. Activists affiliated with the Students' Federation of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) mobbed Banerjee's convoy, shouting slogans and clashing directly with members of her accompanying state delegation. An official attached to the West Bengal Resident Commissioner's office lodged the primary complaint with the Parliament Street police station hours after the brawl, triggering a formal probe.
Six years passed with minimal headway. Delhi Police made two earlier attempts to examine witnesses and record Banerjee's testimony, but neither effort yielded sworn statements despite officials acknowledging receipt of earlier summonses.
Police teams stationed in Kolkata are now awaiting confirmation from Banerjee's secretariat to schedule the deposition and close the pending witness examination phase.