Police have registered an FIR against Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee over alleged communal remarks made during a public rally ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections, while the state CID on Friday moved to serve summons on the party’s national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, in a separate case related to alleged inciting speeches.The twin developments come amid mounting legal challenges for the TMC leadership following the party’s electoral setback and growing political turmoil in the state. (Samir Jana/ Hindustan Times)“A FIR has been registered against Mamata Banerjee on the basis of a complaint lodged by a person, Tushar Kanti Das. A zero FIR was registered by the Regent Park police station on June 7 as the complaint was lodged there. It was then transferred to the Hare Street police station as Banerjee gave her speech at a rally in Esplanade in March,” a senior police officer said.Also Read | 'Mamata Banerjee is my leader, not Abhishek or anyone else': Shatrughan Sinha vows to stand by Didi amid TMC riftMamata had made the controversial remarks while addressing a gathering on March 9 during a demonstration against the Special Intensive Revision exercise in poll-bound West Bengal. Banerjee is alleged to have told the community that their safety depended on her political presence, claiming that without her protection, they would be destroyed by their adversaries.The officer said that the TMC chief was booked under Sections 196(1) (promoting enmity between different groups), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (intentional insult aimed at provoking a breach of peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).Track TMC crisis LIVE updatesMeanwhile, a day after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) questioned Abhishek Banerjee for around six hours until late on Thursday night in the signature forgery case, a team of CID officials reached the TMC MP’s residence on Friday afternoon to serve him summons in a separate case in which he has been accused of making inciting speeches.Also Read | Rebel lawmaker vacates bungalow that served as TMC’s de facto Delhi officeThe Bidhannagar City Police had registered an FIR on May 15 against Abhishek for allegedly making inciting remarks in some of his speeches posted on social media. The FIR, a copy of which HT has seen, was registered under four sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and two sections of the Representation of the People Act. Two of the charges are non-bailable. The CID took over the case on Thursday.“A team of CID officials went to serve him summons in a case related to inciting speeches on Friday,” a CID official said.Abhishek reached the CID office at Bhavani Bhawan around 5:50 pm on Thursday after the Calcutta High Court set a deadline of 6 pm for the TMC lawmaker to appear before the investigating agency. He came out of the CID office around 11:50 pm. CID officials said that he has been summoned again for questioning in the signature forgery case on June 14. He had skipped the summons at least three times earlier.This comes at a time when a section of the party’s MPs and MLAs rebelled against Mamata and Abhishek following the TMC’s debacle in the recently held Assembly polls.Earlier, on June 9, an FIR was registered against Abhishek in connection with the attack on a BJP leader in December 2018. While Banerjee was named the prime accused in the complaint, 40 other TMC workers were also named in the FIR.The Cyber Crime Police Station in north Bengal’s Siliguri town also registered an FIR on May 25 against Mamata on charges of making objectionable remarks against the Hindu religion at a Muslim religious festival and comments about a community during the election campaign in April.