Trinamool Congress complains to EC against ‘unscrupulous raid’ by CBI in Sandeshkhali

The Trinamool Congress on Friday complained to the Election Commission against the Central Bureau of Investigation conducting a raid in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali village allegedly to tarnish the party’s image amid the Lok Sabha election.

Earlier in the day, the CBI said that it recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from a house in Sandeshkhali, which the agency claimed belonged to an associate of suspended Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh, The Indian Express reported.

The bomb disposal squad of the National Security Guard was called in to defuse explosives allegedly found during the raid.

The Trinamool Congress, in the complaint to the poll panel, said that the investigative agency did not send an actionable notice to the state government or the police before the “unscrupulous raid”.

The party said: “Further, the State Police has a fully functional bomb disposal squad which could have assisted the entire operation, if the CBI indeed felt that a bomb squad was required during such a raid. However, no such assistance was sought by the CBI.”

The Mamata Banerjee-led party said there was no way of knowing whether the weapons were in fact recovered during the search or whether they were planted by the CBI or the National Security Guard. It alleged that the BJP has weaponised central investigative agencies to “carry out a smear campaign against AITC which would help sway the mindset of the voters in its favour”.

The Trinamool Congress demanded that the Election Commission should issue guidelines stating that central investigative agencies should not act against political functionaries during elections.

On Thursday, the Central Bureau of Investigation registered a first information report to investigate the allegations of land grabbing and sexual harassment in Sandeshkhali.

On January 5, Enforcement Directorate officials were allegedly attacked at Sandeshkhali in the state’s North 24 Parganas district when they were carrying out raids at Sheikh’s house in connection with an alleged ration distribution scam.

A mob allegedly attacked the Enforcement Directorate officials with stones, bricks and batons.

Following this, several local women accused Sheikh and his associates, Shiba Prasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar, of torturing and sexually harassing them over several years, and also of grabbing their lands for prawn cultivation.