‘CBI conducted raids to create negative perception’: Mahua Moitra writes to ECI

Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha candidate from Krishnanagar in West Bengal’s Nadia district on Sunday wrote to the Election Commission of India (ECI), saying that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted consecutive raids at four of her properties on Saturday to hinder her campaign and create a negative perception about her, and urged the poll panel to intervene so that all parties in the fray get a level playing field.
The raids were held at Moitra’s home in Kolkata as well as her offices and residences in Nadia in connection with charges of taking bribe to raise questions in Parliament for which Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December last year.
Moitra won the Krishnanagar seat in 2019 defeating her nearest Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rival by 63,218 votes.
The saffron camp has not named its Krishnanagar nominee for the coming election till Sunday afternoon.
Claiming that the CBI raids yielded nothing, Moitra wrote: “This is not surprising as such illegal measures have been undertaken by CBI to please their political masters at the Centre.”
To prove her point, Moitra attached copies of the CBI’s search lists with her letter to EC.
All federal agencies leave a copy of the search and seizure list with the suspect whenever a raid is conducted.
“The ECI has previously taken proactive steps to ensure a level playing field for all political parties, including those in the fray,” Moitra wrote in her two-page letter.
“For this purpose, a central investigating agency, which is under the control of the ruling dispensation at the Centre, must be appropriately saddled to ensure that in the name of investigation, they are not carrying out political biddings which favour the party in power at the Centre,” Moitra wrote.
“…..the timing and methodology employed by the CBI creates, at the very minimum, a sufficient amount of suspicion that they are dancing to the tunes of the political dicta,” she added.
Dismissing her allegation, Samik Bhattacharya, Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson, said: “Her allegation is baseless. We are not aware of any rule that prohibits CBI or any other federal agency from conducting raids on a suspect during an election.”
Last year, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey alleged before the Parliamentary ethics committee that Moitra took bribe from industrialist Darshan Hiranandani for raising questions in the Lok Sabha about industrialist Gautam Adani’s businesses. Moitra was also charged with sharing her Parliamentary portal password with Hiranandani. The BJP alleged that she breached national security protocol.
After Moitra’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha, TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee said: “The BJP did not allow Mahua to take her stand and explain her situation. This is betrayal of constitutional rights. It is evident that the BJP cannot fight democratically. This has become a classic example of how democracy can be killed.”