Several Trinamool Congress leaders, including MPs, were detained by the Delhi Police as they staged a protest outside the Election Commission headquarters in Delhi on Monday against the alleged misuse of the central probe agencies.
A party delegation met the full bench of the poll panel and demanded that the chiefs of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Income Tax Department be changed.
TMC leaders Derek O'Brien, Dola Sen, Saket Gokhale and Sagarika Ghose were part of the delegation which appealed to the poll body to create a level-playing field for all political parties before the upcoming Lok Sbaha elections.
The party has been alleging that the central probe agencies have been targeting opposition parties at the behest of the BJP-led Centre.
“The BJP is misusing central agencies against us. The way NIA, ED and CBI are working and targeting TMC leaders is shameful. We would request the EC to ensure a level playing field for all political parties," Sen said.
The TMC protests came days after a team of the NIA was attacked in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district, sparking a political slugfest between the BJP and the TMC. The agency team had reached the village to investigate a 2022 bomb blast case.
While TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the investigators of assaulting the villagers, the NIA claimed that the attack on them was “completely unprovoked”.
The NIA said its actions were bona fide, lawful and legally mandated, as part of its ongoing investigation into the heinous crime related to fabrication of crude bombs, leading to an explosion that killed three persons.
Earlier in February, a team of the Enforcement Directorate, which had arrived in Sandeshkhali to raid the premises of TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh in a corruption case, was attacked by a mob.
