Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien— Screengrab/X

KOLKATA: Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien skipped his appearance at Shakespeare Sarani police station in the city on Monday and sought more time in the case of obstructing Kolkata Municipal Corporation officials from removing an unauthorised billboard at party MP Abhishek Banerjee's main office at Camac Street.

Mr O'Brien was asked to appear at around 12 pm to face questioning in the case. He however avoided and sent an email requesting for a fresh date for his appearance. In the afternoon the cops turned up at his residence on Prince Anwar Shah Road in Jadavpur and served him another summons directing him to appear at 12 pm on September 2.

Meanwhile, Mr Banerjee, who has also been summoned to appear at 12 pm on Tuesday for questioning in the same case, sent a notice through his lawyer Arka Nag to the cops alleging that the FIR against him cannot be accessed online since it has not been uploaded in the city police website. “We tried to get a copy of the FIR online but could not find it,” Mr Nag said.

While it is not clear if Mr Banerjee will face the cops or not, fire and emergency services department officials conducted a fire audit at Mr Banerjee's office on Camac Street on Monday afternoon. They checked each and every floor of the building and fire safety measures including fire alarm, water pump and sprinkler in presence of the cops and found some deviations in some areas.


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