The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, alleging that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had “deliberately carried out an unscrupulous” raid at an “empty location” in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali during the second phase of polling in the state.
The TMC claimed that while elections were underway in Darjeeling, Raiganj, and Balurghat Lok Sabha constituencies on Friday, the central agency carried out a raid at an empty location in Sandeshkhali.
The CBI seized arms and ammunition, including a police service revolver and foreign-made firearms, during searches at two premises associated with Shajahan Sheikh, a now-suspended TMC leader, in Sandeshkhali.
These searches were conducted in connection with a January attack on an Enforcement Directorate (ED) team by a mob allegedly instigated by Sheikh, who was arrested by the West Bengal Police on February 29.
In a letter to the CEO on Friday, the Trinamool Congress expressed concern over media reports suggesting that the CBI had called in additional forces, including the bomb squad of the National Security Guard (NSG).
The party questioned why the CBI did not issue any notice to the state government or police authorities before conducting the raid, stating that law and order fell under the state’s jurisdiction.
The party also doubted “there is no way of knowing with certainty as to whether these weapons were indeed recovered during the search or whether they were surreptitiously planted by the CBI or NSG”.
The letter said that the incident had again demonstrated the fact that the “BJP has weaponised” the central investigation agencies including the CBI to carry out a smear campaign against the party.
“It further iterated that in the absence of any representative of the state government, the purported recovery of arms and ammunition is possibly a ploy by the BJP in conspiracy with the CBI and the NSG to plant weapons in the site”, the party said in the letter.
(With PTI inputs)
