Kolkata, Jan 5 (IANS) Celebrities and their family members have received summons from the Election Commission to attend the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) hearings in West Bengal.
Sources said on Monday that this time, actor and Trinamool Congress MP Dev, also known as Deepak Adhikari, has received a summon for an SIR hearing.
It has been reported that three other members of his family have also been sent hearing notices regarding the SIR.
However, the date and time when they are required to appear at the hearing centre with their documents are not yet known.
Following the development, there has been no official reaction from Dev or his family after receiving the SIR hearing notice.
However, the ruling Trinamool Congress alleged that sending such a notice to Dev, an actor and elected political representative, is purely an act of harassment.
It may be noted that Dev’s ancestral home is in Ghatal in West Midnapore district, where he was born.
Later, due to his father’s work, Dev and his family moved to Mumbai.
Much later, he settled permanently in Kolkata due to his acting career.
His permanent address is the South City residential complex in Kolkata.
Besides being a Tollywood superstar, Dev is also a three-time MP from his birthplace, Ghatal.
Meanwhile, from the Bengali film industry, Dev is not the only one; popular actor Anirban Bhattacharya had also previously received a hearing notice regarding the SIR.
He also hails from the West Midnapore district of West Bengal. Later, he moved to Kolkata with his family for work.
The allegation against Anirban is that he did not provide any documents from 2002 while filling out the enumeration form.
Therefore, he was summoned for a hearing.
On the other hand, two actor couples residing in Tollygunge in Kolkata, Kaushik Banerjee and Laboni Sarkar, also received the SIR hearing notices.
Accordingly, they appeared at the hearing centre on Monday morning.
After leaving the centre, Laboni Sarkar told a section of media persons, “This is the government’s work. We have no questions, nor any answers. But we did come. They only made us sign two papers. They compared the signatures with the previous ones and then let us go.”
Local Trinamool Congress Councillor Mousumi Das blamed the Election Commission for summoning so many celebrities regarding the SIR hearing.
“There is no point in summoning busy actors and actresses from Bengali film industry in this manner. These notices are being sent out from a mentality of causing unnecessary harassment,” she said.
Meanwhile, Indian cricketer Mohammed Shami has been summoned for a SIR hearing as well.
Trinamool Congress Councillor Mousumi Das, from ward No. 93 in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), confirmed that Shami has received the hearing notice.
Although born in Uttar Pradesh, Shami has been a long-time voter in the Jadavpur Assembly constituency in south Kolkata.
According to sources, Shami has been summoned for the hearing due to some complications related to his enumeration form.
Although Shami was scheduled to appear for the hearing on Monday, he will not be able to attend due to his cricket commitments.
He is currently busy playing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Rajkot and will attend the hearing later.
Not only Shami, but his brother has also been summoned for the hearing.
Although Mohammed Shami is originally from Uttar Pradesh, he has been living in Kolkata for a long time due to his cricket career.
He moved to Kolkata from Uttar Pradesh at a very young age on the advice of his coach.
He caught the eye of cricket coach Sambaran Banerjee and secured a place in the Bengal Under-22 team.
His cricket career began from there. He has also played in the Mohun Bagan Cricket Cup.
–IANS
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