Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien Questioned in Camac Street Hoarding Clash

Senior Trinamool Congress leaders Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien were summoned for questioning by Kolkata police on matters related to a hoarding dispute at the party's Camac Street office. The inquiry follows an incident on 27 August when municipal workers and police tried to dismantle a hoarding that authorities claimed was illegal.

The confrontation escalated into a scuffle, with police alleging that party workers assaulted officers on duty and attempted to insult a female police official. In the wake of this, three FIRs have been lodged – one by a Shakespeare Sarani police officer, another by a Park Street officer, and a third by an official from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

A day before the incident, the West Bengal Fire Service and Emergency Services ordered the TMC office on Camac Street to be vacated immediately, citing a lack of adequate fire‑safety provisions on the seventh and eighth floors. When municipal staff arrived with police to remove the hoarding, party activists reportedly resisting under the guidance of Banerjee, O'Brien and other leaders led to a violent clash.

Sumit Roy, Banerjee's personal assistant, received a fresh notice to appear before the Shakespeare Sarani police station on 7 September for further interrogation, this time involving the FIR registered by a KMC officer. To date, fourteen arrests have been made, and two of the FIRs name Banerjee, O'Brien, Humayun Kabir and Vashwanath Chatterjee as alleged conspirators.